Tainted White
by Goldenang
Summary: Fantasy AU Sasuke was always meant to be a healer, but when her family is brutally murdered, she defies the healers code to do no harm. UPDATE: I am not liking the way the story is going, so it is on hold until I can fix it. Narusasu femsasu
1. Prologue

I'm back to writing stories after a long time of only writing essays. I am busy with classes, but as I am no longer taking any English classes, I decided to start writing stories again to keep up my writing. I have never written a romance story and don't really have much experience, so sorry if it isn't very realistic.

I know a lot of people have a problem with Sasuke being a girl, but I have a hard time trying to picture Sasuke as a guy in a relationship with Naruto. Not because I have anything against a gay relationship, just simply because I am a girl and it is easier for me to write a girl in a relationship than two guys. Besides, I would probably just end up insulting any gay people because of how badly I would write a yaoi relationship.

If Sasuke seems out of character, then just try to remember that I have made him a girl and girls will react very differently to the same emotions as a guy. If you don't like it, just don't read this. However, I will do my best to stay true to the root of each person's character.

This chapter is just to test out the idea I had. Let me know if it is worth continuing.

So … long rant over.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any Naruto characters or names. I just use them for inspiration.

**Rating: **T mostly for some blood in the battle sequences and maybe a little kissing and touching, but really I am not going to go any further than that.

**Summary: **Sasuke was always meant to be a healer, but when her family is brutally murdered, she defies the healers code to do no harm. When her new guardian pulls a few strings, she is allowed to take the test to become a part of the Royal Soldiers, which would give her access to all the information she needs to track down her family's murderer. She will not let anything or anyone get in her way. Unfortunately for Naruto, to pass her test, Sasuke has to defeat him in battle. During the heat of the match, sparks fly between Naruto and Sasuke.

G O L D E N

White is not always a holy color.

It represents the absence of color, of light, of love.

It represents loneliness and emptiness.

It represents a lack of information, a blank page.

White is Sasuke's color.

Sasuke's first memory of white was the beautiful flowing robes of her mother. At the time, she did not understand all the implications of wearing that ornate gown. All she knew was that one day she would be just like her mom as expected of her.

Itachi was the firstborn and he was expected to be a great warrior just like his father. Their mom had no say in his life, so when Sasuke was born, her mother gushed at the chance to have her own little protégé. Sasuke's father had no need for a girl and so let her mother do as she pleased.

Itachi was trained and disciplined. Sasuke was nurtured and encouraged. Both thrived in their own fields. However, Sasuke could never completely ignore the lack of recognition from her father and brother, so she had her mother's bodyguard, Kakashi, teach her fighting techniques in addition to her healers training.

Sasuke was determined to rank among the esteemed members of the Uchiha family. Most healers rarely got anything better than a position at a village clinic, but an elite few were assigned to be administrators and researchers in the Royal Institution of Holy Affairs. Because his mother never achieved this honor, Sasuke was determined to get it for her and prove just how great she was.

The Uchiha clan had one main principle: be great. It didn't matter how or in what, but you had to be better than anyone else in the field. Uchiha's held top positions in the court, the army, the church, the universities, the business world, and the healers.

When they all died, they left a lot of holes in the country.

The country of Konoha was a vast and powerful land ruled by the Royal Hokage Family. The monarchy remained powerful and respected because the throne was not passed directly through the generations. Being the firstborn of the current ruler did not guarantee anyone the crown.

Once a ruler was chosen either any of his children or any of his nieces or nephews were eligible for the crown. Upon the fiftieth birthday of the reigning king or queen, the court would administer a test to all the eligible family members from 15 to 30 and then choose the most qualified participant.

However, the system was far from perfect, as most governments tend to be. Nieces and nephews rarely won because of the advantages and influence of the sons and daughters. So, the youngest son of the youngest sister of the ruling king had little hope of ever receiving the crown.

Naruto Uzumaki was too thick headed to rely on hope to get what he wanted. He knew that hope could do nothing without hard work and determination. Despite his constant cries of "Believe it!" he knew good things did not happen without any effort.

Kushina, Naruto's mother, had always told him that he was special not because he was a part of the royal family but despite being a member of the royal family. He enjoyed playing pranks and getting in trouble to the delight of his mother, who was raised in an extremely strict family. Her one act of rebellion was love.

Kushina chose to marry for love rather than exceptional breeding qualities to produce exceptional children who could win the competition for the crown. She had such a weak connection to the crown that she had no aspirations of ruling. No one cared who she married or why because she had not even made it past the prerequisites of the test.

Naruto never thought of his mom as a failure, but he was always enchanted by the idea of becoming king. He had no idea what the test was or how to prepare for it, but that never stopped him from swinging a stick around and claiming to be besting all the other candidates. Of course, then his father had to warn him about the dangers of violence and train him to fight efficiently.

The man who became Kushina's wife and Naruto's father was a brave fighter in the Royal Soldiers, but a simple country man at heart. After he married Kushina, they returned to his hometown far in the countryside on the border of Konoha where they could raise honest and carefree children.

After seven years of carefree living, Naruto learned just how fragile life could be.

Black is not always a morbid color.

It represents the absorption of colors, of light, of life.

It represents stillness and warmness.

It represents a wealth of information, a filled page.

Black is Naruto's color.

A N G E L


	2. Courage in Change

Sorry for the lack of dialogue in the prologue, but I had quite a bit of explaining to do. I figured I would do the prologue as more of an artistic essay then a narrative. In this chapter, there will be more actual character interaction.

Just so you know. I have midterms coming up, so I may not be able to write a lot. However, I find writing to be a great way to relax, so I may write a lot … It could go either way. Anyway, if you have any suggestions or questions I would love to hear them. I plan to make this a very long story following Sasuke and Naruto over many years because personally, I get frustrated when a story ends just after they get together.

G O L D E N

"White is a holy color.

Worm to symbolize honesty.

It covers wounds and surrounds weakness.

We clothe ourselves in white to remind us to protect the innocent."

--Pledge of Purity, Royal Institution of Holy Affairs

"You want me to give up one of my most promising healers to the Royal Fighters Academy. We teach our students to respect life and do no harm. The fighters are killers and barbarians. To let a healer become a fighter goes against everything we represent," as the graying old man droned on, Kakashi knew his chances were thinning, or more accurately knew that the pudgy little man thought Kakashi's chances were thinning. "Having the last Uchiha in the Ranks of the Royal Institution of Holy Affairs would raise our reputation in court."

"Ah, and here we have the real reason for your refusal," Kakashi jumped on the opening. "You just want to display Sasuke to the court to earn more funding, but there's a flaw in your plan."

"I assure you, we only have the child's best interests in our minds."

…

"What was that, master Kakashi?"

"Merely planning my next words, esteemed director," Kakashi smiled pleasantly, or as pleasantly as one is able to with a cloth covered mouth and a huge eye patch. "As I see it, you have neither her nor your best interests in mind. Sasuke clearly wants to become a royal soldier and you clearly want to uphold your honor."

"But, if we let a healer join the Royal Soldiers, our reputation as upholders of peace will be ruined."

"But, if you don't let her join the Royal Soldiers, Sasuke will do everything in her power to ruin you and she has a lot of influence as you have so clearly insinuated." Kakashi rather enjoyed the red that swelled into the old man's cheeks at his words. "However, if you let her join and she becomes great, which she will, then you can boast about being the ones who trained her and then maybe the King, who clearly favors his Royal Soldiers, will decide that your institution is not completely worthless." Oh, there was a new shade of red.

"We are not worthless! The king values our magical abilities to be able to cure the wounded and the sick and our readiness to …"

"Yeah, we both know none of that is true," Kakashi said cheerfully. "Write a letter to the Commander of the Fighter Academy saying that you would like to transfer the last Uchiha to his school in order to expand her knowledge and prepare her for becoming the new head of the Uchiha family. He won't read much past last Uchiha, but we have to make it official and whatnot."

"You … you have no authority to tell me what to do," the old man was practically foaming at the mouth now.

"I have no authority, but I have plenty of blackmail," Kakashi whispered no longer playing nice. This had taken far too long. He had promised the Commander he would have Sasuke at the Academy by sundown.

"You … you …"

"I … I …" Kakashi mocked, "I have no more time to play with you and I have the skills and influence to bring you down."

Kakashi walked slowly up to the man's desk and pulled out the overly ornate chair, then walked slowly around the Director and back towards the desk, forcing the man to move towards the chair. As the man sat slowly, Kakashi picked up the fluffy quill pen, which all people obsessed with appearance seem to have, and traced the sharp tip over the man's wrist before handing it to him.

The man glared at Kakashi, but as a trained fighter, Kakashi saw it for what it was: a desperate attempt to mask fear. As the letter was being written, Kakashi reveled in the squirming of the man, who cared so much about pride.

"What took you so long?" Sasuke grumbled from the bench she was sitting on outside the director's office.

"There was a rat that ran into the office and began chasing after this cat, but the cat started eating a salad, so the rat decide to chase the dog instead because …"

"Alright, alright, I get it, I won't ask," Sasuke groaned as she stood and walked after her guardian, who had just continued walking down the hall during his rant.

"Cats like to play with their prey," Kakashi said way too cheerfully for Sasuke's liking.

They continued to walk in silence towards Sasuke's chambers. Sasuke took this last opportunity to look at the school she had studied in for the last decade of her life. The polished white marble walls used to fascinate her, but now she only felt the overbearing starkness of a place devoid of color.

This place was portrayed to the public as an environment in which to nurture the caring and gentleness required to be a student, and maybe for a while, Sasuke believed that. Now? Now, Sasuke could see the truth. The lack of any décor, aside from the faces of previous directors and banners listing the principle values of the healers, forced the students to become emotionally detached and ready to saw off a man's leg without a second thought.

"When do we leave?" Sasuke queried in a small voice, which she would only use with her guardian.

"As soon as we can get all of your things into the carriage already waiting for us outside," Kakashi assured.

"How did you get him to agree? How did you get the Commander of the Fighter Academy to agree?"

"Well, there was this cloud outside the window shaped like a giant squid and then there was this other cloud that looked like a jelly fish and they were fighting and the squid was surrounding the jellyfish and the jellyfish was stinging the squid and the squid backed away and then the jellyfish started dancing …"

"KAKASHI!!" Sasuke forgot that high marble ceilings tend to make things echo.

"You've got excellent lung capacity, great attribute for a fighter. Another great attribute is to always be smarter than your opponent, but not to let your opponent know it."

Sasuke sighed. Thankfully, they had reached the doors to her chambers and she could busy herself with packing. Kakashi giggled, yes, Sasuke knew that he was giggling like a little boy who had just put a lizard into a girl's dress, as she packed.

"Make yourself useful and start carrying boxes," she grumbled.

"Maa, I was pretty useful when I got this letter," he chuckled and began fanning Sasuke's face with the letter.

Sasuke snatched the letter from him and glared. Kakashi only chuckled harder as he threw a box on his shoulder and left the room.

Sasuke turned the letter slowly so the label was facing her. She stared at it for a few moments, before walking over to the small satchel on her bed and tucking it inside. Then, she searched for the picture she had under her pillows (pictures were not allowed in student's chambers). She stroked the face of her mom.

"I'm sorry mom. I will never forget what you have taught me, but I have to know," she whispered in a voice so low and so broken that when Kakashi walked in he didn't need to hear the exact words to know what she was saying.

He quietly walked back into the hallway, shutting the door behind him, just to slam the door open humming like a lunatic. Sasuke jumped and shoved the picture into her bag.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke sighed.

"Hmm … do you really want to know?"

Sasuke just continued packing. Satisfied with the silence, Kakashi continued carrying out boxes.

As they rode up to the Academy, Sasuke noticed the painted black woodwork of the buildings behind the fence. Instead of one large structure like the Institute, the Academy consisted of several cabin like buildings spread out between large arenas. Even though they were still a fair distance away, Sasuke could make out the forms of fighters scattered around the grounds like little black ants.

"Kakashi … ?"

"You'll be fine."

"But …"

"I wouldn't have gotten you transferred if I didn't think you could handle it."

"What if I can't?"

"Your mom would understand."

…

…

Silence can be the loudest form of comfort.

When the carriage finally stopped in front of the large wooden gates that secured the grounds, they were surprised to find the Commander and some other fighters standing there in full uniform, which consisted of black loose cotton trousers and long-sleeved shirt and lightweight ankle boots. The trimmings on the uniforms denoted their rank. The Commander wore a red vest with several medals and a heavy black fur cape over which hung his long shaggy white mane. His hand was ominously gripping a long sword tied loosely around his waist.

To his right stood a young man probably in his twenties examining a notebook in his hands. His presence was less imposing than the commanders wearing only a puffy great vest with lots of pockets. Though he had a nasty scar across his nose, the messy ponytail on his head made him look like a young boy.

To the commander's left, three boys stood smirking at the carriage. Each had a sword strapped across their back, but otherwise remained completely unadorned. The first had a mop of messy blond hair and seemed to be murmuring something funny to the other two. The second boy with spiky red hair seemed uninterested, but the third with wild brown hair was muffling his laughter.

They got a glare from the man holding the notebook as Kakashi opened the door to the carriage. When Sasuke stepped out of the carriage, she felt all their eyes on her. Suddenly feeling extremely out of place with her long flowing silk robe, she rolled the huge sleeves up to her elbows.

"Is something wrong, Commander?" Kakashi asked carefully, masking it with cheerfulness.

"You didn't really think I would let a healer in here without even knowing what she could do, did you? Uchiha or not." His voice held laughter, but even Sasuke could feel the challenge.

Sasuke handed her bag to Kakashi and paused only briefly to grab a small glass bottle from its depths before turning to face the Commander.

"I am prepared to prove myself," Sasuke said with all the pride her heritage had given her.

She waited apprehensively as the Commander slowly examined her. He turned to the man on his right and whispered something that the man jotted down on his notebook. Then, he snapped his fingers and the three boys to his left straightened into attention.

"I will be admitting you with only one year left before graduation," he paused and took a step forward, making him tower even taller over her, "if you are admitted." He motioned to the boys. "These are three of my top students that are in the same year you wish to be admitted to. You must be at least as proficient as them in fighting for me to consider you ready to enter this Academy."

"I understand," Sasuke said, cutting off the Commander before he could finish what he wanted to say. "I am prepared to fight anyone you wish."

"Eager little thing, this one, eh Kakashi?" Kakashi offered a peace sign, but remained poised behind Sasuke ready to step in at the first sign of a threat.

"This," the Commander said pointing to the boy with brown hair, "is Kiba. He has excellent instincts." The boy gave a toothy grin.

"This," he began again pointing to the middle boy, "is Gaara he is a very calculating fighter." Said boy did not so much as twitch.

"And I," the boy with blond hair said stepping up to Sasuke, "am Naruto, the best of both worlds and number one at this school." He smiled widely and put one hand behind his head. Sasuke caught a glint of mischief in his blue eyes.

Not intimidated, Sasuke responded, "Soon to be number two."

Naruto took another step to be just centimeters away from her. "Perhaps," he said then turned around and walked back towards the other boys, "if Kiba would train a little more or if Garra would loosen up a bit."

Sasuke glared.

"Oh, you didn't think you could do it, did you?" he smirked as Kiba outright laughed this time. Even Gaara's lips twitched into a slight smirk at that remark.

"Save it for the match, brat," the Commander reproached though with laughter in his own voice.

"Match?" Kakashi asked as he stepped out from behind Sasuke.

"Yes, match. The Commander has arranged for the entrance arena to be free this afternoon, so that these four can fight in a test match," the young man answered speaking for the first time.

"That's right," the Commander confirmed. "By the way, this is Iruka our head instructor at the Academy.

"It's fine, Kakashi," Sasuke whispered, then in a louder voice spoke to the Commander. "Then, let's go. I want to have time to unpack before bed."

They all grinned, but only Iruka seemed genuinely pleased. "Follow me," he interjected before the taunting could continue.

They were all led to a wide open patch of grass set apart from the rest of the land only be a circle of black wooden posts.

"Who's first?" Sasuke asked as she walked into the center of the circle.

"Patience, little Uchiha. Patience," the Commander replied. "You don't even know the rules or conditions." When she merely raised an eyebrow, he continued, "All three of them will be in the arena, but will only be allowed to attack one at a time. Once one of them is knocked out, the remaining two will be allowed to attack freely. A knock out means either getting your opponent out of bounds or rendering them unconscious or immobile. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Sasuke announced. As the three boys entered the ring, Sasuke pulled up the hem of her robe and tucked it into the sash around her waist to reveal tight pants and boots of the same color as her opponents: black.

"Black is a menacing color.

Worn to symbolize secrecy.

It conceals weapons and consumes the weak.

We clothe ourselves in black to remind us to punish the guilty."

--Pledge of Power, Royal Fighters Academy

A N G E L


	3. Fight for Your Place

I am not a doctor or a nurse or a student of biology, so I apologize if some of my information is inaccurate. I will try to look things up carefully, but if I get something wrong, just try to go with it or you can shoot me a review and I will try to change it.

I have never written a battle scene before. For school I had to become very proficient in description and poetry, by practice I have gotten fairly good at dialogue, but I have never really needed to write action sequences.

I had a pretty good battle planned out, but I don't know how well I was able to execute it. I put a lot of effort into the battle and am fairly pleased with it, but again, I am not an action writer. If you have any suggestions, I will gladly listen. I hope I didn't bite off more than I can chew by making my first fanfiction an action romance …

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

~*~White is the color of bones~*~

~*~Strong but fragile bones~*~

~*~Stable but always weakening~*~

Sasuke enjoyed the sound of Kiba's nose breaking. For all his taunts and bravado, he was not fairing well against the young healer.

"Stand back, guys. Let me take her out by myself," Kiba had announced as he swaggered up to Sasuke.

"Remember that all techniques are allowed, but do not aim to kill," Iruka cautioned.

"Enough talk! Begin!" the Commander shouted.

Kiba crouched down and began grunting what sounded like random syllables, but Sasuke recognized the signs of a spell. Kiba's nails began to grow to unnatural and dangerous lengths.

"My family has been imitating the ferocity of wild beasts for centuries," Kiba proclaimed proudly.

"It seems more like you are wild beasts imitating humans," Sasuke shot back with a smirk, though she was not taking his new attributes lightly.

Sasuke held the pinky and middle finger of her hands together and began humming her own spell.

"Did you mess up?" Kiba mocked after nothing appeared to be different about Sasuke.

"Why don't you come find out?"

Kiba grinned and began to charge Sasuke staying low to the ground. He swung his hand towards Sasuke's body just to test her reactions. As he continued to throw punches, gradually increasing his strength and speed, it seemed no matter how much he increased his ability Sasuke would dodge it perfectly.

"Not bad, if you were an eight year old student at the Academy," Kiba mocked, though it was apparent that he was slightly flustered. She seemed to be just as strong and fast as him even with his enhanced abilities.

"Well, then you are only attacking with the skills of an eight year old. No, actually, since I am dodging so easily, you must be attacking with skills even lower than that," Sasuke countered.

Kiba growled at that and straightened from his position crouching on the ground. "I'm just trying not to hurt the little doll," he snarled tying to regain the upper hand.

"Well, you are doing an excellent job," she replied sweetly. "I don't have a scratch or a bruise at all."

"I can change that."

"What happened to not hurting me? If you are trying to hurt me, then I suppose you are _**not**_ doing a very good job. I guess I better let you make up your mind about whether or not you are actually trying to fight me or just swinging your pretty nails around."

Kiba charged her then, growling out some more threats. Sasuke began blocking, now, instead of just dodging.

"The kid has basic combat skills. I'll give her that," the Commander commented, "but, I have yet to actually see her do anything."

"That is why she will be such a great fighter," Kakashi said proudly, "because she fights with healer techniques that the fighters won't recognize or know how to counter."

"Hrm?" the Commander raised an eyebrow as he grunted skeptically.

"That first spell pumped her body with adrenaline, which allows her to keep up with Kiba's attacks. I know Kiba's spell is similar in that it increases his muscle mass." Kakashi glanced away from the Commander and back towards the fight. Seeing Sasuke hold her hands in a praying position and begin chanting, he said, "Here comes the counter attack."

"Praying for your life," Kiba said, truly believing her to be giving up.

Sasuke just smirked and took advantage of Kiba suddenly dropping his guard to taunt her by slamming the heel of her hand into his nose and holding it there a little longer than required to break his nose. Kiba lurched backwards and bent over clutching his nose.

The sound of the bone snapping along with Kiba's scream caused the other two boys in the arena, who had previously just been standing near the edge, to rush forward. Though they did not think Kiba was out yet, they were now prepared to step in if needed.

"Not yet!" Kiba yelled as they neared him. "I can handle it."

Kiba threw his head back up quickly, but the sudden motion caused his vision to blur. He clutched the side of his head.

"Does your head hurt?" Sasuke asked with a smug voice. "That would be from all the blood rushing to your brain, usually it is a technique to help keep people conscious after a concussion, but if too much blood is pushed into the brain of a healthy person, they will experience symptoms of Intracranial pressure, including pain, ocular palsies, which causes you to be unable to move your eyes, and … "

Kiba finished the list of symptoms by hunching over and puking. Kiba shook his head to try and get rid of the pain.

Because of the sudden headache, his own spell had faded causing his skills to return to normal as well as preventing him from being able to fight properly. Despite that, Kiba tried to charge Sasuke again, but he had indeed lost control of his eyes and could not stay focused on Sasuke's form.

With a few quick kicks to the stomach, Sasuke had forced Kiba's body outside of the ring. Unfortunately for him, Kiba was not able to see that he had been knocked out and tried to rush Sasuke again.

Sasuke gave a swift kick to his ankle, causing him to tumble forward. She moved to the side, so he would not fall on her, and gave a chop to the back of his neck, which finally made him loose consciousness.

"Knock out, Kiba," Iruka yelled from the sideline. "Two on one attacks now allowed."

"Alright, that was unique," the Commander admitted, with just the slightest hint of admiration. "A little gross, but effective."

"Healers have to know the human body inside and out in great detail," Kakashi explained. "There is a thin line between repairing damage and causing it."

"Well, now we will see how she does against more than one opponent."

Gaara and Naruto stared at Kiba for a while, slightly unnerved by the manner of his knock out. Those techniques were new and strange.

"We shouldn't let her touch us," Gaara whispered to Naruto. "And we shouldn't let her have any time to cast any spells. We really don't know what she is capable of doing."

"Don't let her get to you, Gaara. Kiba was impulsive, but usually his strength is enough to counteract the trouble he finds himself in because of it, which is why we let him attack first," Naruto assured him, though he nodded slightly to Gaara's remark.

With one more glance at each other, they both rushed Sasuke. Naruto reached her first and aimed a punch at her head, which she easily ducked under. However, she had to duck her head right into the place Gaara had just aimed a kick. With a quick lurch backwards, Sasuke flipped out of the way and landed a few feet away from them.

Remembering Gaara's words, Naruto jumped after her with Gaara right behind him. Naruto was just a few seconds ahead of Gaara and threw his punch first. Sasuke dodged and grabbed Naruto's arm. She threw her body forward forcing Naruto's body into Gaara's.

Both boys stumbled for a second, but quickly separated and charged again. This time Naruto used his extra speed to get behind Sasuke just as Gaara reached her front. Each aimed a kick on a different side and at different heights, giving her no room to move, but Sasuke would not be corned.

She jumped forward towards Gaara, so that only his upper leg connected where the force was greatly reduced. The momentum of Sasuke's body knocked Gaara off balance and he fell to the arena floor.

Momentarily stunned by Sasuke's escape, Naruto was unable to stop Sasuke as she quickly pulled a bottle out of her sash and poured the liquid inside of it onto Gaara's face. Gaara coughed as the liquid entered his mouth, but was not able to stop it from doing its job.

Attempting to save his companion, Naruto attacked Sasuke, who was standing over Gaara looking satisfied. Naruto pushed her away from Gaara and knelt down next to his friend.

"It's just a tranquilizing agent. He'll just pass out for an hour or so," Sasuke offered calmly, remembering that these boys weren't really her enemies.

"You … better … win …"

"Don't worry Gaara, I will."

"Knock out, Gaara," Iruka announced as he ran around the outside of the ring to be close to where Gaara lay, now unconscious.

"You're full of new techniques," Naruto commented casually. "But, I won't be as easy to take down as my friends because I now know what to look for in your moves." While Naruto slowly pulled his sword off his back, he moved towards the opposite end of the ring, so that Gaara would not be injured in their fight.

Tossing the bottle outside of the arena, Sasuke sauntered after Naruto.

Both poised to fight, but wanting to wait while Iruka carried Gaara out of the ring to continue fighting.

"I couldn't use my sword before because I might have hit Gaara as we fought in close knit moves, but now I don't have to hold back at all," Naruto explained to Sasuke waving his sword from side to side, a wide grin on his face.

Rolling her eyes, she countered, unimpressed by his attempt at intimidation, "I have spent over 10 years of my life learning the techniques of a healer. Do you really think in all that time I only learned two spells?"

"I'm surprised you even learned two. Everyone knows the Institute is just a place for pretty little rich girls to go and improve their list of reasons to brag and bait an even richer husband."

"And little boys go to the Academy to earn the honor of licking the crumbs off the king's floor."

"Then why do you want it so badly?!"

At that statement, the Commander stilled and listened intently for her answer.

"It … was my family's legacy," she replied slowly. Glancing towards where Gaara used to be and noticing the space now empty, Sasuke charged Naruto again, not wanting to talk about it any further.

Careful to avoid Naruto's sword, she ducked and swiped at his legs. As he flipped over her kick, she rolled farther away from him, using the new distance to quickly chant a spell before Naruto could reach her. Placing the palm of one hand over the back of the other, she bagan to mumble the appropriate words, which caused her bottom hand to begin to glow green.

Just as her hand began to glow, Naruto reached her and swung his sword down towards her chest. In response, Sasuke leaned just enough away to be out of the blade's path and quickly shoved her glowing arm against his wrist, which held the sword.

"Was that supposed to hurt," Naruto teased, as he felt no pain at all.

"No," she replied slightly amused, "quite the opposite actually."

Confused, Naruto decided it didn't matter and began to lift his sword for another attack only to realize … his sword wouldn't move. His face grew even more confused and he tried to pull harder, thinking his sword must have gotten stuck in something. To try and dislodge it, he stepped back with his full body weight, but instead of freeing his sword it flopped to the ground as his arm fell to his side.

Panicking slightly now, he tried to move his arm. "What did you do?" he demanded furious.

"This is one of the first skills healers learn," she started, circling him like a predator. "To be able to perform any kind of surgery or procedure, we first have to numb the patient so they will not feel pain. Though, it has the added bonus of making the patient unable to move. In a fight, it's less messy than breaking a bone and more effective."

"Doesn't matter." He picked up his sword in his other hand. "I can fight with both hands. A _**real **_fighter is able to adapt to any situation."

"I don't see a real fighter, only a cat bristling its fur to appear bigger to its attacker."

"I am not a cat! I am a student of the Royal Academy of Fighters!!"

"You haven't graduated yet."

"I'm stronger than most graduates anyway. I don't need a vest to prove my strength."

"Well, a vest would hide your scrawny chest."

"Maybe your little trick with Kiba affected your eyes as well. My chest is as broad as a …"

"Ape," she finished and paused to look him over. "I suppose you do have that … primitive feel."

"Primitive?!" he yelled, swinging his sword in her direction again.

She dodged, easily noticing the difference in skill between his dominant and current arm. "Too primitive to think of an intelligent rebuttal?"

"What about my butt?!"

"Well, I suppose that proves that the things that come out of your mouth are even worse than what comes out of your butt, which at least serves a biological purpose."

"That's not something a lady should be saying."

"I doubt any lady could stand you long enough for you to know how a lady behaves."

"I know plenty of ladies and you are not one."

"Do I not look like a lady?" She curtsied with a cute smile to add to her sweet words.

"No," he mumbled, but he was blushing slightly.

"Really, why don't you look again?" She walked slowly towards him, purposely swaying her hips.

Still blushing, he looked away, which was just what Sasuke had planned. Before he could regain his composure and look back, she pointed her right arm towards the ground, palm parallel to the ground. She grabbed her right arm around her wrist with her left and spread out the fingers of her right hand.

"Does my body not have the same qualities as a lady?" She continued hoping to keep him distracted a little longer.

As he began trying to form the right words, she started chanting quietly, so as not to be heard over his voice.

"Well … I mean … there are … there are certain … certain things about you … that … that … that are …"

Perhaps Naruto should have been thankful that Sasuke had finished her spell and had begun to attack him again, which prevented him from having to speak anymore. She aimed at his chest with her right hand, palm facing him and now emitting crackling tendrils of blue light.

Still flustered, Naruto swung his sword forward, momentarily forgetting that she was not an actual enemy and he should probably not cut off her hand. However, when the sword connected with her hand, it got cut instead. The sound of the sword's point hitting the ground finally startled Naruto out of his confusion and he jumped backwards in shock and a bit of fear.

"What was that?" he breathed as if he had been punched in the chest.

"My own special version of a technique used to cut flesh and bone for surgery," she said proudly. Straightening herself, she began slowly walking towards him, hand still producing the menacing noise and light from her spell.

For the first time in a long time, Naruto backed away in fear, dropping the remainder of his sword as he moved.

"Naruto!" Kiba shouted from the side, slightly recovered from Sasuke's spell. "Don't chicken out now! She's just a little girl," he urged, though his voice held a hint of fear.

Naruto stopped moving. Though he lowered his head, his body stood strong and he curled the hand on his arm, which was not numb, into a fist.

The new body language made Sasuke stop as well. Cautiously, she examined him again. Under her gaze, Naruto began grunting out apparently random syllables and his whole body began to glow red. To her surprise, he began moving the arm she had previously numbed.

Now having use of both his hands, Naruto charged forward throwing punches with both hands in quick succession, leaving Sasuke little time to do anything but push his fists slightly off their directed path. Though none of his punches hit anything vital, Naruto began connecting with Sasuke's body.

The sun was setting now, creating an eerie orange blaze behind the two forms now sparring furiously in the middle of the grassy field.

"This is taking too long," he said, gasping for breath after the long exchange. With that said, he took advantage of Sasuke's breathing break. He sliced his thumb with his teeth and started drawing in the grass with the blood.

A summoning. Sasuke could not know exactly what was coming, but she had to stop it. Still panting, she rushed forward, but he was too far away and she was too tired to get there in time. With an explosion that singed the grass, a frog appeared in front of Naruto. Sasuke reached them just after he appeared and tried to get rid of the frog before it could help Naruto in any way, but both the frog and Naruto jumped out of the way easily.

Sasuke turned around just in time to see the frog spit a dagger out of its mouth, which Naruto picked up with a toothy grin.

"You're not the only one who can affect the human body," he bragged. "This dagger can knock you out with even the smallest cut."

"You haven't been able to cut me yet," she countered smoothly. However, her eyes locked on the dagger, prepared to evade it at all costs.

His attacks came quick and steady. Sasuke had to use every ounce of energy she had left to avoid the blade. This was not good. She could not keep this up forever, but she could not find any openings to cast another spell.

She couldn't loose.

She had to find out.

She had worked so hard to get this far, even knowing how low her chances were, especially being a woman.

"Woman have their own kind of unique power." She had remembered Kakashi saying that, when she first expressed her worries about being able to fulfill her plan. She knew what she had to do, but it took her a few more minutes to steal herself for what she was about to do.

As Naruto swung the dagger once again, she dodged just right, so that Naruto's hand was just in front of her chest. Then, she did one of the most humiliating things she had ever done, she leaned forward so that her breast touched the back of Naruto's hand. With a squeek, he dropped the dagger and backed away.

Sasuke picked up the dagger slowly and aimed a kick at Naruto's already shaky legs. He tumbled to the ground. So as not to waist her opening, she straddled Naruto's chest and brought the dagger up to his face.

"Every little kitty needs whiskers," she mocked and quickly cut three whisker marks on each of Naruto's cheeks.

As Naruto drifted off, the last thing he saw was Sasuke's smirking face surrounded by star's from the night sky.

~*~Black is the color of night~*~

~*~Dark but soothing night~*~

~*~Ending but ever renewing~*~

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	4. Having Your Enemies Close

I haven't had any reviews, so I don't really know what people think of this story. I will keep writing regardless of whether I get reviews or not, but it would be nice to know what people think. So if you have any comments (things you liked, things you didn't like, things I should improve, things I should change) please let me know what you think and review.

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

~White escapes all things~

~Exposing hidden fears~

~Run from blinding light~

As the night grew darker, lamps around the arena began lighting up, revealing the outcome of the fight.

"No way!" Kiba shouted upon seeing Naruto's unconscious form.

The light had been too dim in the last minutes of the match for anyone to see for more than a few feet, so he had thought for sure Naruto would win. No one ever escaped his poison dagger.

But, Sasuke had and was now crouching over an unconscious Naruto.

After standing up from over Naruto, Sasuke untied her robe and let it flow around her ankles once more. Slowly, she walked over to her audience. When she reached the small group of people outside the arena, she was met by four very different expressions.

Kakashi was cheerfully smug, being the one who taught her everything he knows. Iruka was passively congratulating, ever the proud teacher. Kiba was furiously seething, embarrassed by his loss.

The commander was unreadable.

Everyone remained as still and as quite as possible waiting for his reaction, even Kiba who obviously wanted to scream at Sasuke.

The night drew on as they all waited for the Commander to say something, anything. None of them wanted to be the first to break the silence.

…

"You'll be bunking with Naruto and Kiba," the old soldier finally said and without another word, started walking away.

"WHAT!?" Kiba yelled, expressing Sasuke's feelings perfectly.

The Commander stopped momentarily and looked over his shoulder at them. "There aren't any openings in the girl's cabins. Anyone who wants to be picky and proper doesn't belong in the Academy."

"Well," Kakashi began in his usual annoyingly cheerful voice, "I'll go get your bags. Hey, Iruka, can you show me the way. We'll get a medical team to pick up these two on the way."

"Of course, Kakashi," Iruka agreed. "Kiba, you can take Sasuke there ahead of us."

"But … but … she's a girl," Kiba whined.

"What a brilliant observation," Sasuke retorted, rolling her eyes.

"Are you going to disobey an order from the Commander?" Iruka asked, before they could start arguing again.

Kiba grumbled something similar to a "no" and with one last glare started walking away, motioning for Sasuke to follow him. With one last glance at Kakashi, who nodded his encouragement, she followed Kiba across the lawn.

"This should be fun," Kakashi chuckled once the two children were a little further away.

"Here it is," Kiba announced begrudgingly in front of the first cabin in a long row.

As the entered the Cabin, Sasuke could not help but be bothered by the fact that the entire cabin was only as big as her old bedroom in the Institute, but seemed to be meant for two people and included a washroom and kitchen.

And, the room was filthy. When Sasuke let a disgusted expression show on her face, Kiba grinned pleasantly and added to her discomfort by saying, "Don't worry. We clean every week. In fact, we just did a thorough cleaning yesterday."

Sasuke just glared.

"That's my bed on the left of the window, Naruto's on the right," Kiba continued unfazed. "Bathroom's through that door over through the door on the right and there's a small closet through that door on the left."

After his brief tour, Kiba strolled over to the kitchen area of the cabin just to the left of the entrance, grabbed some bread and meat, and moved to sit at the small dining table on the opposite side of the entrance.

Breathing out slowly to calm herself down, Sasuke walked even further into the Cabin. She rubbed her eyes and walked slowly over towards the bathroom to examine the mess. Deeming it acceptable, for now, she walked inside and slammed the door.

Finally alone, Sasuke let out a deep sigh. This was not going to be easy, but she would manage. Her first method of coping would be to clean this bathroom. With one last sigh and a rub of her temples, she left the bathroom to see Kiba wolfing down a sandwich.

She stood awkwardly outside the bathroom door until a knock on the cabin door announced Kakashi's arrival. Thankfully, that gave her a distraction from being along in the horrible room with a guy who currently hated her. Over the next hour or so, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Iruka tidied up the cabin to make room for Sasuke's belongings.

"Where's she gonna sleep?" Kiba asked from his bed, where he was currently mourning his new predicament.

"Well," Iruka began in thought, "I suppose she can sleep in Naruto's bed while he is in the infirmary and we will try to get an extra bed moved in here tomorrow."

"Why can't she just sleep on the floor?" he murmured. "Or even outside?"

Too tired to argue anymore, they all just choose to ignore him and finish unpacking. Finally, Sasuke got to the last thing on her agenda: changing the bedding.

As she began to carefully remove Naruto's bedding, disgust distorting her face, Sasuke saw Kiba jump from his bed and march over to her.

"You can't just take his bed," he shouted, grabbing onto Sasuke to stop her from touching his roommate's things.

"It is very easy for a healer to remove a person's hand," Sasuke said icily, staring at Kiba's hand around her wrist.

He quickly dropped her hand, not forgetting the damage she had just done to some of the Academy's best students.

"Don't get too full of yourself," he continued bravely. "We were just caught off guard by your new techniques."

"Yes," she continued with a smirk, "and if this were a real battle, you would be dead regardless."

"Well …"

"Just go to bed both of you!" Iruka demanded. "You both are expected to be in class tomorrow morning. Sasuke, classes are associated with your cabin. It makes it easier to keep track of the students. Just follow Kiba in the morning. And, Kiba, don't even think of trying to get out of it or your whole team will be punished."

Without any more arguing, Kiba trudged to bed. Sasuke finished changing the bedding on Naruto's bed and climbed carefully into it as if expecting it to attack her with disease.

'I'm here' Sasuke thought as she stared up at the wooden ceiling above her, so different from her old room of marble. 'One step closer.'

She knew this quest would take a long time, but this one accomplishment seemed like such a huge battle won. From here, if she did well, she was almost guaranteed a position in the Royal Soldiers. Judging by the fact that she had just bested three of the allegedly greatest students of the Academy, she felt confident in her chances of success here.

'I'm getting closer, mom.' With that thought inside her heart, she drifted off to sleep.

Cold.

That was Sasuke's first sensation of the day. Cold and wet was what she felt as she entered the waking world. But, why?

"You stupid mutt!" she yelled, realizing the source of her discomfort came from a bucket of cold water courtesy of Kiba. He stood over her, grinning widely.

"Sorry," he taunted, "but, we have to leave for class now."

"What?" She shot up alarmed. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"Iruka only said I had to make sure you follow me. He never said anything about giving you time to get ready. We have to leave now or we'll be late."

"Fine," she growled, jumping out of bed.

"Hurry up. I don't think you should be late on your first day." He ran out the door just as Sasuke picked up one of her boots from the floor and threw it at him.

Hungry, dirty, cold, and wet Sasuke grabbed the boot still next to her bed and trudged through the filth of the cabin towards the door. At the door, she stopped to pick up her other boot. Slipping them on with a yawn and a sigh, Sasuke steeled herself for anything Kiba had in store for her.

Outside the cabin, she just barely caught sight of Kiba in the distance and had to run so as not to loose him. They walked through the rows of cabins for a while before stepping out onto a wide open field. To the left of the field stood a much larger building than the cabins. In the distance, Sasuke could see a huge mansion, which she assumed was the main offices of the Academy.

"This is the main base for our class," Kiba explained, though reluctantly, referring to the small building next to the field. "That big building there has the mess hall, the infirmary, and the mission office on the bottom floor and all the teacher's and the Commander's offices on the second floor. No one really knows what is on the top floors." Satisfied that he had done enough explaining to satisfy Iruka, Kiba walked into the building without a second glance at Sasuke.

Sasuke looked around the landscape once more before following Kiba into the building.

Inside, she noticed twenty or so people sitting on benches in front of tables that stood against the walls. There was a black board on the far wall and a small desk in front of it, obviously meant for Iruka. In the center of the room, a large blue matt covered most of the floor.

Everyone turned to stare at her as she entered. What a spectacle she was. Wearing a, now wet, white robe, when everyone else was wearing black long-sleeved shirts, pants, and boots. Her hair was knotting and curling up around her shoulders because it was wet and messy from sleep.

All she could do was stand there in front of the entrance doors. She did not really think about what she would be doing once she got into the Academy.

Naruto was the first to break the silence. "Hey, jerk, look what you did to me," he said, referring to the amusingly large white bandages on each of his cheeks.

"A fight is a fight," Sasuke replied glad to be able to focus on something besides the fool she was making of herself. "If you whine every time you get a scratch during a fight, I don't know how you made it so far in the Academy."

"I suppose not everyone cares about how they look," Naruto smirked eyeing Sasuke's disheveled appearance.

"Looks don't win a fight."

"That doesn't mean much coming from the girl who used her looks to win a fight."

"That doesn't mean much coming from the guy who fell for it."

By now, every person in that room was enthralled by all the new juicy gossip. Just because this school was to train soldiers, that did not mean it was not full of teenagers always hungry for drama. There had never been such great rumors as a top student being taken out by a spoiled rich lady, who also happened to be a lowly healer.

"So, you slept in my bed last night," he grinned. "I hope you liked it."

"I'm sure I must have gotten some sort of disease from last night."

"Hey, I'm clean!"

All the girls were practically drooling at the implications.

"I don't see how that is possible in the mud whole you call a room. Don't worry, we cleaned it up last night. Of course, we had to get rid of a lot of," she paused to walk up close to Naruto, "garbage."

"Don't touch my stuff!" He yelled, shoving her backwards.

"Hmm … you seemed to enjoy touching my … things, last night."

"Don't flatter yourself. I was disgusted, not happy."

"Are you sure? Well, maybe you have just spent too much time without any romantic interactions, if you've had any at all, that it's made you impotent."

"Why … you … I'm NOT impotent!!"

"How very good to know, Naruto," Iruka said, walking into the classroom from the back. "Sit down. Now. I will not have you bullying our new student. Sasuke won the match fair and within the bounds of the rules. Rather than complain, you should train harder."

"Yes, Iruka sir," Naruto replied with as much self control as years of the Academy had instilled in him, though all he wanted to do was cut up Sasuke's face in revenge.

As Naruto moved from in front of Sasuke, Iruka was able to see the state Sasuke was in. "What happened to you?" he asked in shock.

" … Nothing," she said after contemplating the consequences of telling the truth, "When I woke up, I went to wash my face, but I had some trouble with the sink and did not have time to clean up before coming to class."

She had to remind herself that she was not here to get along with nor fight with any of the other students. She had a mission to complete and she was not going to let any teenage drama distract her from her goals.

"Well, after classes, please have Naruto show you how to use their bathroom correctly," Iruka chided, not fully believing her excuse. "Please take a seat next to Naruto."

"What!?" Naruto yelled, jumping up from his seat.

"The Commander himself ordered you and Sasuke to be training partners for the remainder of your time here," Iruka explained sternly.

"What about Gaara?" Naruto continued adamantly.

"He will be assigned to train with his brother, Kankuro," Iruka answered patiently. "The Commander has worked out all of the details, Naruto, and if you do not wish to get punished, you will do as he wishes. Gaara, please move over and make room for Sasuke."

Naruto wanted to argue more, but could not think of anything to say that could change his situation. So, with one last glare at Sasuke, he sat down on the bench, which was now without Gaara. He glanced over apologetically at Gaara before turning his full attention on Iruka.

"Go sit down, Sasuke," Iruka commanded gently.

Reluctantly, she went to sit down next to Naruto, leaving as much room as possible between them without falling off the bench.

"As I'm sure you all know by now through gossip, this is Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka introduced. "She will be a part of this class from now on. She has earned her spot just like the rest of you, so I expect you to treat her the same as any other classmate."

"This is not over," Naruto whispered as Iruka began lecturing about some subject or another.

Though not particularly interested in the lesson, Sasuke did not bother to respond to Naruto. The lesson progressed slowly, giving Sasuke plenty of time to process just how much her life had changed in the last few days. Before, her ideas for the future where just dreams, but now, she could see hope.

She would not let some mangy muscled cat or dog get in her way.

After a lecture that dragged on for hours about something no one really paid attention to (knowing the terrain in battle, Sasuke noted), Iruka ordered them all out of their seats to stand around the matt in the center of the classroom.

"We will now practice sparring," Iruka began, a lecture bubbling under the surface. "It is a fighters most basic skill. One can not always rely on magic or weapons. Magic may take time you do not have and weapons can be lost. A fighter must never put any techniques above the training of his … or her ... natural physical abilities.

"We will begin a series of two on two matches. You and your partner will be fighting another team. Teamwork is another skill a fighter _**must **_posses. Without it, there is no point of even being at this Academy because you will never even get work as a bodyguard.

"Sasuke. Naruto. Why don't we work on your teamwork?"

They both glared heatedly at the other.

Iruka sighed in frustration. "You can fight … Zabuza and Haku."

'_Please don't kill each other.' _Iruka prayed as all four people walked into the ring.

'_I will not kill Sasuke.'_ Naruto gritted his teeth.

'_I have to prove myself.'_ Sasuke thought as she looked around to all the black clad bodies.

~Black surrounds all things~

~Hiding faults within the soul~

~Rest in calming shade~

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	5. Gossip Material

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

White is a color of war.

The sign of gruesome wounds

Allowing the weak to fight

_This means war … _Naruto thought as he tried to get comfortable on the hard floor of his cabin. As he drifted off to sleep, he thought of how he had gotten stuck with this punishment.

"I can take both of you myself," Naruto taunted purposefully bumping Sasuke as he stepped in front of her.

"Shut it, brat," said Zabuza, through the bandages around his mouth.

Sasuke examined the towering man in front of him. Without question he was the tallest person in the class, including Iruka. Before the match started, he pulled off his baggy black shirt to reveal muscles that seemed too big to be human. He certainly looked too developed to be the same age as the rest of the class, perhaps he was.

"I've beaten you before," Naruto continued, pulling his own shirt off.

He has a nice body, Sasuke admitted absently to herself. No. Shaking her head, she tried to focus instead on her opponents rather than how close Naruto's now bare back was to her face.

"Not by yourself," Zabuza said and wrapped his arm around the small girl at his side.

"You really should try to work with your partner," the girl urged quietly.

Even Sasuke admitted that she was a pretty girl. With long black hair and a thin body hidden by very baggy clothing, she appeared very cute and much more feminine than Sasuke.

"Not a chance!" Naruto yelled back.

Alright, Sasuke had had enough. She reached around Naruto and shoved him to the side. "I should be the one to fight them. I defeated both you and Gaara."

"Only because of your fancy tricks!" he shouted, rounding on her. Puffing his chest out, he stepped uncomfortably close to her and glared down at her. "This is straight combat," he breathed above her head, "and I don't remember you being able to stop me in that area."

"Then I suppose your poison affected your memory," she hissed, shoving his chest away from her face. His chest was hard and warm. "I was doing just fine against you and Gaara in hand to hand combat. The only time you were any kind of match for me was when you had your dagger, and even then you could not defeat me."

"Because you used cheap tricks," he growled, blushing.

"What? What did I do to you?" she asked with a low, smooth voice. She was not enjoying his blush and she was certainly not getting flushed.

"You … used your woman … ness." That was not awkward. He was not going to let her get to him. It should be easier to ignore her because she was a mess, but strangely it seemed even harder.

"Stop flirting!" Zabuza grumbled to the dismay of the rest of the class, who were rather enjoying the tension.

"Begin!" Iruka shouted to the four students on the matt, cutting off their banter.

"Just stand back," Naruto said proudly.

Before Sasuke could argue, Naruto had rushed to meet Zabuza, who had charged them as soon as Iruka finished talking. Naruto ducked under Zabuza's first punch, which was not hard since Zabuza was so tall. Then, Naruto countered with a shot to the gut, but Zabuza was not injured at all.

As the two boys battled it out, Sasuke and Haku stared at each other. With a pleasant smile, Haku nodded to the boys and started talking. "Why don't we let them drain some energy before we jump in?"

In response to such a sweet and gentle voice, Sasuke could only nod. Though she would never admit it, she was still somewhat tired because she had woken up just minutes before a long and boring lecture, which began to lull her back to sleep.

As the two men continued to fight aggressively, Sasuke took this time to examine Naruto's movements. He was pretty good. He might have beaten her in a straight out match, but she was too clever to ever let that happen. In battle, it did not matter how you won as long as you stayed alive. Fair play could only happen when you trusted your opponent and Sasuke trusted no one.

Suddenly, Naruto seemed to find an opening and knocked Zabuza backwards with a kick to the ribs. Just as he went to deliver a powerful punch to Zabuza's jaw, Haku rushed forward with incredible speed and caught Naruto's hand.

Zabuza recovered and went to kick Naruto, while Haku created an opening to Naruto's chest by pulling his arm. Being completely unguarded, Naruto's chest received a strong blow and he was knocked to the ground.

Sasuke frowned.

She didn't particularly like Naruto, but she really did not like seeing him double-teamed by the odd duo. Her mother had instilled in her the desire to protect the wounded as a part of her healer training. Therefore, when Zabuza and Haku began to move towards Naruto again, she walked forward to stand in front of Naruto.

As they drew closer to her, Sasuke rushed to block both of them from reaching Naruto by placing her body in front of Zabuza and aiming a kick towards Haku. Haku easily jumped backwards, dodging the kick, but Sasuke had prevented her from reaching Naruto. Zabuza was more difficult. His huge fist came rushing towards her head and she had no time to block after attacking Haku. She put up as much of a defense as she could before the punch landed.

However, whatever pain she had been expecting did not come as instead she felt herself pulled backwards into Naruto's chest and out of range of Zabuza's punch. It was so warm. So warm that she did not notice Naruto move slightly forward with her and deliver a blow to Zabuza's face.

"Match. Naruto and Sasuke." Iruka's voice drifted slowly into Sasuke's ears.

"Match," she whispered breathlessly, still stunned. It appears that Naruto had knocked Zabuza unconscious.

"When participating in a two on two match, only one member of a team has to be knocked out for them to loose," Naruto whispered back as calmly as he could. Sasuke was not the only one feeling dazed in their current position, but thankfully for him, Naruto had become more careful about the emotions he showed around Sasuke.

"Naruto, why don't you take Sasuke back to your cabin?" Iruka offered softly. "It has obviously been a difficult first day."

"No way," Kiba yelled. "Why do they get to leave early?"

"Kiba," Iruka said, smiling dangerously, "I believe I put you in charge of getting Sasuke to class. I know you have the good sense to know I meant prepared, but if not, perhaps you need some more lessons on proper procedures. I know Mizuki would be more than happy to take some extra time to teach you."

That sent a shockwave through the entire class as everyone now backed away from where Kiba stood. Mizuki was a particularly sadistic teacher who believed he was a perfect teacher. No matter how painful it would be for them, Mizuki demanded his follow his training routines, which were always especially unusual and dangerous.

All Kiba could do was shake his head 'no' and hope that Iruka believed his threat had been effective enough and choose not to act on it.

"No," Sasuke announced, finally pushing away from Naruto. "Thank you for your concern Iruka, sir, but I am perfectly fine." 

"It's okay, Sasuke," Iruka said pleasantly. "We will just be going through the rest of the matches and while there are lessons to be learned by watching others fight, I believe it is more important for you to learn to get along with your partner."

"So, you're punishing us," Naruto whined.

"It is a lesson you must learn," Iruka said, more sternly. "You demonstrated a basic understanding of what it means to have a partner. You each helped your partner, but you were not fighting together.

"I realize you were just assigned as partners and I can't expect you to be completely synchronized yet. However, that is all the more reason for you two to have some time alone. Naruto, show Sasuke around today and try not to kill each other."

"We shouldn't be partners!" Naruto yelled. "What was that crazy old man thinking by assigning us as partners? I am here for a reason, she is here on a whim!"

"You don't know anything about me," Sasuke whispered with venom in her voice.

"Both of you go to your cabin now!" Iruka snapped. "Now!" he repeated before they could say anything. "Or both of you can pack your bags and leave."

"Yes, sir," they both said quietly, sufficiently scolded.

_Kakashi, I hope you and the Commander know what you are doing. _Iruka thought as he watched the pair leave, still glaring at each other.

Once they were outside of the classroom building, Naruto and Sasuke separated several feet from each other and began to walk towards their cabin. Naruto glanced over to Sasuke and growled. Upon noticing she was a few feet ahead of him, he started running, turning back only for a moment to stick his tongue out childishly at Sasuke.

In response, Sasuke merely rolled her eyes and continued strolling in the same direction. She was too tired to get into a race against a moron. Once Naruto was too far away to see or hear her, she let out a deep sigh.

"Now that sounded like you had a wonderful first day," Sasuke heard a voice say from behind her. It was a very familiar voice, but not one she really wanted to hear right now.

"What are you doing here, Kakashi?"

"Just getting lost on the road of life," he said cheerfully. "So, how was your first day? How was your teacher? Did you make any friends? Did you learn anything interesting? What did you study today?"

"Kakashi. Enough."

"Did you really think this would be the same as the Institute?" Kakashi asked this question seriously.

"No," she said calmly, "and I am doing just fine without you meddling."

"It is my job as your bodyguard to meddle in your life," he said, acting cheerful once again. "You don't have to do everything on your own. There is a reason most fighters work in teams. Maybe you should try to get along with your partner. You and Naruto are not as different as you may think."

"We are nothing alike," Sasuke hissed. "I will be fine on my own. If I did need someone to train with, it would not be that loud, idiotic slob."

"You are not the only one in the world who has seen death," Kakashi chided. "Perhaps you should look into Naruto's eyes when you see him next time. You might see something familiar."

"Just go away, Kakashi," Sasuke muttered. Before he could say anything else, Sasuke started to walk away quickly.

"Play nice!" Kakashi shouted after her.

Sasuke sped up and reached the cabins only a few moments later. Upon reaching the door, she heard crashing sounds coming from inside and rushed through the door to find out its cause.

"What are you doing!?" she yelled as she watched Naruto pulling her stuff out of the closet. Furious she glanced around the room to see what else he had done only to find that he had also ripped her bedding off.

"Getting you out of this cabin," he yelled back, throwing one of her bags towards her. "This is my cabin. This is my closet. This is my kitchen. And, that is my bed." With raging eyes, he pointed towards the now bare bed.

As she looked at the bed, she noticed her most precious treasure ripped: the picture of her family. "It was not my choice to live here," she said with an eerily calm voice. "However, you had no right to go through my things." She walked over tensely to the bed and picked up the pieces of her family's portrait.

"What do you care? Buy yourself new stuff with your daddy's money. Buy whatever you want, just don't put it in my cabin!!" He did not seem to notice her clenched fists and shaking shoulders.

Within the next second, Sasuke had turned and charged him. Her eyes were now red except for the pupil and one small black spot in the iris.

Then, everything went black.

The next thing Sasuke saw was Kakashi's face hovering over her. Frowning, she tried to move her hand to push his face away only to find it tied down.

Noticing the movement, Kakashi explained, "You activated your Sharingan and the extra flow of magic overrode your brain. You lost control. We had to tie you down because we could not know whether or not you would be in control once you woke up."

Sasuke could only groan in response.

"But," he continued, regaining a happy tone in his voice, "since you appear to be conscious of your surroundings, I will untie you."

As he moved to untie her, she finally found her voice. "What did I do?"

He paused. "You and Naruto were fighting when I reached the cabin after sensing the change in your magic. He was getting beat pretty bad, but he was able to greatly minimize the amount of damage because of his training."

"How is he?" she asked, convincing herself she was only concerned about whether or not she would get expelled from the Academy for killing another student.

"He's fine," he grinned, recognizing something deeper in her question. "He has quite a few scratches and bruises, but nothing serious. You were not really very focused in that state and so could not fight properly."

"How much trouble am I in?"

"Not that much, actually. I saw the picture and was able to explain the situation to the Commander. In fact, I think Naruto is going to be in more trouble than you. Fighters are taught to defend their honor, so you will probably only receive a lecture. On the other hand, Naruto basically disobeyed an order from the Commander by trying to kick you out of the cabin, which the Commander very clearly ordered you to live in."

"Oh." That was all Sasuke could say after that.

"Don't worry about it. We should go see the Commander, if you are able to, and get this all sorted out."

Instead of answering verbally, Sasuke pushed herself up off the bed. Absently, she noted she was now wearing a silk, white robe and her hair had been combed. After realizing she did not know where to go, she turned to Kakashi and snapped irritably, "Let's go."

Chuckling, Kakashi walked out of the room in front of Sasuke. Silently, he led Sasuke down a long hallway and up a flight of stairs, then down another long hallway. Near the end of that hallway, they could hear loud voices from one of the rooms.

"… her fault … not fair … a stupid picture … my bed … stupid"

The words drifted out from behind a large wooden door embossed with gold patterns, which Sasuke figured was the Commander's office.

"He certainly has great lung capacity," Kakashi said, sounding impressed. "You know, I bet he's a great kisser."

Sasuke growled, but before she could do anything, Kakashi knocked on the door knowing Sasuke would never do anything unruly in front of anyone else, especially someone in authority like the Commander. Just as he thought, Sasuke quickly composed herself and put on an impassive face.

"Enter!"

Kakashi pulled the door open for Sasuke, grinning at her nervousness.

Upon entering the room, Sasuke immediately received a glare from Naruto, who then received a smack in the back of the head by Iruka. Slowly, nervously she walked into the center of the room. No one seemed to know what to say. To distract herself from the silence, Sasuke looked around the room. There were lots of books. She had not expected that.

Noticing where she was staring, the Commander chuckled pleasantly. "Didn't expect so many books," he voiced her thoughts. "Despite what you think, thanks to this one," he paused pointing his thumb at Naruto, "fighters are not savages. Knowledge is very important in battle."

"Yes, sir," she said quietly.

"Don't be so nervous," he said playfully, walking closer to her. "I had to be tough on you for the test, but now that you have passed, you are one of my students. Nothing will ever change that.

"Now as for your little fight," he said more seriously now. "You should not have had to fight, but I understand why you did. Naruto acted inappropriatly for a student of the Royal Academy of Fighters, but perhaps next time, if there is a next time," he warned, glaring at Naruto, "you will attempt to find a teacher instead of acting on your own. You must know how to defend yourself, but more importantly, you must know _**when **_to defend yourself.

"Naruto's punishment was to clean up all your things, which he has already done under Iruka's supervision, and he will be sleeping on the floor tonight, since we were not able to move a new bed into your cabin because of the mess.

"Tomorrow, I want you both to meet me in my office again, so we can work on your teamwork." He quickly turned to Naruto to stifle any protest he might try to make. "Go to bed, now. We'll talk more in the morning."

Naruto really wanted to protest, especially after seeing the satisfied look in Sasuke's eyes, but knew it would only get him in even more trouble. The trip back to their cabin was tense and silent, but otherwise peaceful.

When they got to the cabin, Sasuke noticed was even cleaner than when she had moved in last night and was thankful for that. Kiba was lying on the bed, watching the two as they walked around the cabin. He obviously wanted to say something, probably to yell at her some more, but he kept silent. That was a bomb waiting to explode, she noted with apprehension, but was too tired to deal with it tonight.

Without any more trouble, they all prepared for sleep and climbed into bed, well, bed and floor in Naruto's case.

_This means war … _Naruto thought as he tried to get comfortable on the hard floor of his cabin. As he drifted off to sleep, he thought of how he had gotten stuck with this punishment.

The next morning was just as silent as the evening before. This time, Sasuke woke herself up on time and got ready before either of the boys had woken up. She was pacing around the front of the cabin when Naruto stepped outside.

"You actually woke up, milady," Naruto taunted, "without a servant waking you up. And, look at you. You actually dressed yourself."

"Hmm… most guys don't notice what a girl wears unless they are interested in them," she challenged. But, she did not want him to notice her and she certainly did not wear her best white robe lined with lavender silk around the neck, sleeves, and hem just to impress him.

Naruto certainly was not impressed at how the colors of her robe made her skin look even more porcelain or at the way the dress emphasized that she was very clearly a woman. "As if," he growled, blushing slightly, though thankfully the bandages on his cheeks hid most of it.

"Let's just go to the Commander's office," she said, "We can get this partnership punishment over and maybe fake it long enough to graduate."

"Fine by me," Naruto mumbled.

They both trudged up to the main building, occasionally glancing at each other. Once they reached the towering structure, Sasuke had to follow Naruto because she had forgotten they way. As she walked behind him, she could not help but think just how much her life had changed because of him already.

She had never been punished before, and even though she was not really being punished very much, she felt horrible. She had let herself loose control because of this idiot and had endangered her chances of fulfilling her duty.

Before she could dwell on this too long, they had reached the ornate door from the previous night. Naruto threw the door open without even knocking and Sasuke cautiously followed, worrying about entering the office without announcing herself.

"Good," the Commander said once they were both standing in front of his desk, "you are both here in one piece. So, here's what you two are going to do. For the next two weeks, you are going to be examining each other. You will find out each other's strengths and weakness. You will figure out each other's motives for being here and most importantly what they wish to achieve by being here. After two weeks, I want a report on my desk on clean paper with nice legible black writing,"

Black is a color of peace.

The sign of written conversations

Allowing enemies to talk

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	6. Life over Pride

I am so frustrated right now. I had this chapter written absolutely perfectly on Tuesday. I even think I did well with the battle scene, but then I was unable to find it when I went to upload it yesterday. Luckily, I had about half of it hand written. I do remember the basic things that I wrote after that, but it was really really hard to rewrite everything.

I had planned to release one chapter early today (Friday) and another tomorrow (Saturday), but because I lost so much, that probably won't happen. I have had to spend the time I was going to use to write the next chapter to rewrite this chapter.

Hopefully, I was not so frustrated that I ruined the effect I wanted to make for this chapter.

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

White dominates all the day

Yet despite its warming glow

Many souls fervently pray

For its heat to cease its show

_She is too intense. Always burning everyone with the fire in her eyes. I wonder what could have caused her to be so angry and untrusting._

Naruto looked up carefully from the page he was writing on to see what Sasuke was doing, only to find her looking at him over her own sheet of paper. Stunned, both quickly looked back to their laps. Just seconds later, Naruto hear her scribbling something furiously.

"I'm done for today," she exclaimed and quickly left their cabin before Naruto could react.

Unfortunately, she had forgotten to put her paper away securely, but had left it lying on the floor in front of Naruto. Though he knew he shouldn't, Naruto could not suppress his curiosity and after checking to make sure Sasuke was far enough away from the door, he crawled across the floor and picked up Sasuke's paper.

_He is too bright. He is always smiling like an idiot and trying to create a great show out of everything he does, but sometimes I think there is something darker in his eyes. Maybe there is something more to him. _

Here the writing changed. It was messier and had obviously been written quickly. This must have been what she wrote after they had looked at each other.

_No. He is just a stupid cat wanting to look down on everyone else. _

Without thinking, he ripped up the paper and stormed after Sasuke angrily. He was not a cat! If anything, she was a cat always grooming herself and not liking anyone to show her affection.

After a few minutes of searching, he found her practicing her moves on the field in front of their classroom.

"I am not a cat," he shouted, which earned him strange looks from the various other students also training on the field.

"You read my paper?" she asked with a glare. "You had no right to read my report."

"You don't know anything about me," he continued, ignoring her question. "We have only known each other for a week and for the last few days you have been avoiding me as much as possible. In class, you don't talk. When we have to spar, you don't talk. After class, you just run off to train without talking and then you go to bed only after I am asleep."

"Our assignment was to observe each other," she responded as calmly as she could. "I don't believe that includes becoming friends."

"I don't want to be your friend either," he said, "but we have to be partners and that requires even more responsibilities than friends. Though I am not happy about this, but we can't get out of this now that the Commander has made up his mind. Believe it!"

"What do you propose we do then?!" she yelled back impatiently.

"Talk!" 

The two continued to stand opposite each other in silence for several more minutes. By now, every student within a mile had come to see the latest developments iin the now infamous Naruto-Sasuke drama. Unfortunately, Iruke had also heard the yelling and was now walking towards them with an angry look on his face.

"No more," Iruka said sternly, "Kakashi asked me to leave you alone to try and sort it out yourselves, but obviously you are not capable of doing that. I have been thinking of a solution all week and here it is.

"For the next week, I want you two to hike into the woods to the wilderness training post and stay there. Each of you will only be allowed to bring half of the necessary supplies, so you must share. You will be alone and must rely on each other to survive.

"Go pack. Come back within an hour for me to check your bags."

Shocked, neither one of them could move or speak.

"Now!" Iruka yelled. "I have had enough of you two fighting and disrupting my class. If you can not learn to get along, neither of you will make it into the Royal Soldiers.

Finally, Naruto and Sasuke headed towards their cabin, using every ounce of discipline they had in order to not argue. Though the prospect of staying alone together in the woods seemed horrible to both of them, neither would risk their goals by questioning this sudden order.

"This is all your fault," Naruto grumbled as they entered their cabin, the only place they could be certain no one would hear them and report to Iruka.

"Don't start," Sasuke said firmly. "There's a list of things to take on a mission in our class handbook. You take the first half of the list and I will pack the last half."

"You don't seem very surprised by this," he said with annoyance. He could not be the only frustrated by this.

"I am just following orders," she said with a sigh. "I have already been punished enough because we've been arguing. I worked hard too get here to ruin it because of you."

"Of course," he countered getting angry again. "Everything is all my fault. Nevermind that you took away my partner, my cabin, and my bed."

"Just pack. We have to be back to Iruka soon. We can fight all you want when we are away from here."

"Believe it!"

The only thing that kept Naruto quiet as they finished packing was the idea of being able to fight and yell as much as he wanted once they reached the woods. He remained calm as they went to Iruka and checked in with him. He remained calm as he watched the buildings of the Academy fade into the distance. He remained clam as they reached the wilderness training post and set up camp.

Finally, he set down the last of his supplies in their camp and rounded on Sasuke. "So," he began calmly, "Why are you here?" After only receiving a glare, he continued more sarcastically, "Did you just want to see what it was like? Did you get kicked out of the Institute?"

"No," she answered getting agitated. "Why are you here? Too dumb for anything else, looser?"

"Shut up! I am not dumb or a looser or a cat. I am a great fighter and I'll prove it to you if you doubt me."

"The only thing I doubt is your sanity if you think you really are great."

"What about your sanity? You're the one who went so crazy you ended up in the hospital."

"That was your fault. I was just trying to stop you from ruining my things."

"But, you had no problem moving all my things."

They probably would have continued fighting all day if not for what happened next. Without warning, a chain with a sharp claw on its end ripped through their tent.

The tent was pulled aside to reveal two large, muscled men covered in black clothing, including their heads. The only place not covered with cloth was their eyes, but even that area was covered by large goggles.

Without warning, the two strangers charged towards Sasuke and Naruto.

_They are big. Too big. They are too strong. They are going to kill me. I am going to die. Death. _

Fearfully, Sasuke stood unmoving and closed her eyes tightly. She hit the ground hard a moment later and curled into herself waiting to feel pain.

Above her, she could hear the sound of metal hitting metal; however, she could not contemplate what the sound meant. Suddenly, she heard a very different sound floating around her.

_What is that sound? A voice? Voice? Whose voice? Naruto? Naruto!_

"Sasuke!" Naruto's voice finally registered in her mind.

She was not dead. She was not hurt.

"Get up!" Naruto yelled once more. At that shout, Sasuke's mind finally snapped into focus.

Quickly, she jumped up to examine the situation. Looking towards Naruto's voice, she noticed him being backed into a tree by the two attackers. The sounds of metal came from Naruto's sword hitting the strange weapons of his opponents. They looked like large metal gloves with fingers like knife blades.

After pulling out the dagger she always kept hidden in the sash around her waist, Sasuke rushed to help Naruto. The attacker closest to her turned and lunged at her. For a moment, Sasuke was intimidated by the man's large metal weapon, but soon realized that its fierce look had a disadvantage. Because they were so large and therefore slow, Sasuke was easily able to dodge them. Unfortunately, her opponent soon realized his disadvantage and switched tactics.

The man ripped the gloves off his hands and threw them aside. In their stead, he grabbed the chain weapon that had been used to rip through the tent. With a great swing of his body, he threw the large blade at the end of the chain hurling towards Sasuke.

However, this time, Sasuke was focused on the fight and not at all frightened by the odd weapon. Easily, she jumped out of the way and rushed towards her opponent. Without wasting the opening, she sent a kick towards his shoulder and knocked him backwards towards the tree line.

After a moment, the man steadied himself and went to throw his weapon again, but when he pulled the chain backwards, Sasuke threw her dagger through one of the links on the chain and into a nearby tree, effectively trapping the chain on the tree. Thus, when he went to swing the chain forward, her attacker was forced backwards into the tree. Before he could recover, Sasuke raced forward and knocked him unconscious with a powerful blow to the head.

After taking a moment to catch her breath, Sasuke turned to see how Naruto was fairing, only to find that he had already defeated his opponent and now stood staring at her. His look was strange and Sasuke feared the curiosity lurking under that expression.

"We should tie them up," Sasuke said in order to stop him from voicing any of the questions he obviously wanted to ask.

"Are you okay?" he asked cautiously.

"Fine," she responded curtly. "We can use their chain to tie them up to this tree." She quickly walked over the form now lying at Naruto's feet and began to drag him away. Naruto contemplated whether or not he should ask what he wanted, but after seeing her struggling with the larger man, he decided to help her.

"What should we do now?" Naruto asked, staring warily at the strangers.

Sasuke just stared.

"Should we take them back to the Academy?" he tried again.

Sasuke just stared.

"Yeah. Yeah, we should take them back."

"That won't be necessary," a hapy voice said behind them.

Naruto turned around quickly towards the voice and raised his sword in defense. Sasuke just groaned, recognizing the voice as that of her quirky and overly cheerful guardian.

"Hmm … you're a spunky one, aren't you?" Kakashi chuckled.

Slowly, Naruto lowered his sword and relaxed his stance.

"I'll take these two to the Academy," Kakashi said. "You two continue with your cozy little camp out."

"How can we stay here now?" Naruto asked, still on edge because of the attack. "What if we are attacked again?

"Oh, you won't be," Kakashi replied much too cheerfully for the situation, "Those are the only two."

"How can you know that?"

"Because we let them in," Kakashi said as if it was obvious.

"WHAT?!" Naruto yelled.

"Our guards noticed them near the border of the Academy this morning," Kakashi explained more serious now. "We decided it would be best to let them think they had snuck in unnoticed and see what their objective was. Thankfully, it looks like we were able to figure that out without any damage."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked carefully. "What did they want?"

"You," Kakashi responded bluntly. "This outpost is farther away from where they entered than the rest of the Academy, which means they wanted something here. We could not be sure that they knew you would be here, but they attacked you after observing you for a while. Also, when Sasuke was knocked down, they ignored her and focused on attacking you.

"But, you don't have anything else to worry about. The guards have been tripled and given specific instructions not to let anyone else through. I can assure you, it is safe here. You two need this. You need to get along now more than ever."

"If you were here the whole time, why didn't you help us?" Sasuke asked annoyed, cutting off anything else Kakashi had to say.

"Hmm … I figured you could handle it," he said cheerfully, then more seriously added, "but if you needed me, I was here. I want you to grow stronger and fight your own battles, but if you are ever in serious danger, I will do all I can to help you. I will always protect you.

Sasuke stared at him with a blank face, but Kakashi knew she was comforted by his words.

"Your mother left you in my care when she died," Kakashi continued.

"Kakashi!" she yelled, not wanting Naruto to know about that, least of all from Kakashi in a situation like this.

"Well, then, I'm off," Kakashi said, grinning, and threw the strangers over his shoulders. With a quick nod of the head, he left for the Academy, leaving two very flustered people behind him.

"That was weird," Naruto breathed after several minutes of stunned silence.

"That was Kakashi," Sasuke corrected.

"By the way," Kakashi called from far off, "Naruto, you should probably let Sasuke have a look at that hand. Wouldn't want you to fight off two fierce warriors just to die from bloodloss."

"Huh?" Naruto mumbled stupidly.

Yes. That was blood. Naruto could now feel the sting of the cut and the blood dripping down his fingertips.

He did not screech.

After Naruto ( DID NOT!! ) scream, he began panicking. "Oh, that's a lot of blood. No! I don't want to die!"

"Naruto," Sasuke said firmly.

"What if there is poison? What if it hit an artery? There are big arteries near your hand right?"

"NARUTO!"

Naruto was silenced for a moment, then in a very slow and quiet voice, he asked, "Am I really going to die?"

If his voice had not sounded so sincerely frightened, Sasuke would have mocked him for such a stupid question. "No," she assured softly, "Kakashi was just trying to mess with your head. Ignore him. You will be fine, but I should still bandage it up."

Gently, Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand, examining the extent of the injury. She slowly dropped his hand and moved away towards her bag. Naruto watched, transfixed, as she pulled out some bandages and a small glass bottle.

Returning to his side, Sasuke began to wipe away some of the blood with her fingers. Without warning, she poured some sort of purple liquid from the bottle onto Naruto's hand. Naruto hissed as the strange concoction washed over his broken skin.

Next, Naruto heard Sasuke begin softly chanting some sort of spell. Her voice lingered like a sweet melody in his ears. Absently, he wondered if all healers' spells sounded like that. Probably not, he mused because during the few times he had been sent to the infirmary, he could not remember seeing any healers as beautiful as Sasuke.

Before he could contemplate the implications of what he had just thought, his mind was wiped clear. Sasuke had leaned her face close to his hand. As the last sounds of her spell vanished, she began to blow on his wound releasing a soft blue mist from between her lips that floated over and stuck to Naruto's flesh.

Both were blushing by the time the spell had finished working its coarse. Silently, Sasuke began to wrap bandages around Naruto's now smaller cut.

"So … " Naruto started awkwardly.

"Tomorrow," Sasuke said quickly.

Naruto wanted to continue, but the tiredness in Sasuke's voice stopped him. Reluctantly, he began to fix up the camp, careful of his bandaged hand. Sasuke looked at him relieved for a moment before helping him clean. It was a slow process as both of them were so distracted by all the events of the day.

Though their tent was ruined, the weather was nice enough that they did not bother to make a covering. Besides, both of them felt more comfortable being able to see all around them after the surprise attack from only a few hours ago.

Reluctantly, they both crawled into their makeshift beds set up a few feet apart on the forest floor. The night dragged on slowly as they lay awake in their beds, each feigning sleep in order to fool the other.

Near midnight, Sasuke's tiredness won over her pride. Carefully, she stood up and moved until she was lying alongside Naruto. Though Naruto was facing away from her, he could hear her approach; however, he continued to pretend to sleep despite the fact that both knew he was awake.

He held his breath as she lay down.

For a few minutes, they both remained stiff in their beds. Then, as naturally as he could manage, Naruto turned over to face Sasuke, though his eyes remained firmly shut in mock sleep.

Without thinking, Sasuke reached out and placed her hand softly over Naruto's bandaged one. A sigh softly worked its way out of Naruto's partly open mouth, which Sasuke was doing her best not to acknowledge. She did not want to risk him moving away because of embarrassment.

Despite all that had happened that day, Sasuke was finally able to relax because of Naruto's presence. The warmth radiating from his body and the gentle caress of his breath soothed Sasuke's restless mind. These subtle signs of life lulled her into the deepest sleep she had ever had. For the first time in years, she felt that she was not alone.

Black conquers the entire night

Yet despite its empty bleakness

The harmony of scattered light

Sooths all our thoughts of loneliness

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	7. Deepest Secrets and Ramen

NOTE: I just reloaded this chapter because I was unhappy with the choppiness of some of it. I wrote it pretty quickly because I just wanted to get the ideas down, but I kind of feel like I wrote it as more of an outline than an actual story. So, all I really did was flesh it out a little. I hope it will flow better now.

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

White illuminates the deepest caves

It changes the manner in which one behaves

Allowing new discoveries to be made

Secrets for Clarity: it is a fair trade

Though the sun beat heavily against her face, Sasuke could not force herself to get up. She could hear Naruto moving busily around their camp, making breakfast she assumed. It was such a strange feeling: knowing that there was someone moving around her currently helpless form. Never had she allowed someone to see her sleep even when she was a child and her mother would come in to tidy the room around her.

The events of the previous evening weighed heavily in her mind and despite the fact that she had gotten her best night sleep in years, she did not have enough energy to face Naruto yet. The secrets she would have to tell had been hidden so deep within herself that she feared if she removed them, her whole heart would collapse.

However, this deep fear made her fidget nervously in her bed, so she ended up not faking sleep very well. Almost certainly, Naruto knew she was awake, but thankfully he did not say anything. That gave her just a little bit of hope. He was willing to wait.

Suddenly, Naruto moved away from the campsite and disappeared into the woods. Still slightly shaken from last night's attack, the thought of being alone scared her. She quickly jumped out of bed desperately searching for Naruto's form; however, she not fast enough to see where he had gone.

With her eyes now open, she tried to figure out what Naruto had been doing that morning. There was a place set up for a fire, though it was not lit. Scattered around the sticks of the unlit fire were dishes: a pot, a pan, plates, cups, and silverware. Their water jug was missing along with a bowl. Nothing else seemed disturbed, so she assumed no one else had been in the camp and Naruto must have taken them with him.

He must have gone out to gather any vegetation he could find and fill their jug with water, Sasuke noted with relief. He would return soon, then. That thought made her nervous again.

Before Naruto could return, Sasuke wanted to finish cleaning up for the day. She went to her pack and pulled out all the necessary items, such as a rag and a comb, and began to remove some of the grime from fighting last night and sleeping on the ground. Feeling clean and put together would give her confidence to face the ay ahead of her.

Fortunately, Sasuke had finished before Naruto returned to camp, but now needed something else to do. To keep herself busy, she began brushing off and wrapping up their bedding to keep it as clean as possible for the next night. Again, she finished alone. Not having anything else she could think of to do, she merely sat next to the campfire. Breathing slowly and deeply, she prepared for his return and the conversation they would need to have once he did.

After a few more minutes, Naruto's form could be seen approaching the camp. As he got even closer, Sasuke noticed that the bowl he held in his hands was full of some sort of orange berry and the jug was balanced awkwardly in his left arm.

When he was still about twenty feet away, Naruto finally noticed Sasuke sitting there now awake. He paused momentarily. Though Sasuke could not see exactly what he did, she saw his face change. Once he began moving forward again, though more slowly, Sasuke stood up to help him. As he entered the camp, Sasuke walked over and took the berries from his hand, allowing him to more easily carry the water jug.

"Thanks," Naruto said, voice still drowsy.

"Yeah," Sasuke replied awkwardly.

"I figured we could put some berries in the oatmeal."

"Yeah. I'll start the fire."

"Thanks. I'll start the oatmeal once the fire is ready."

"Should we make some tea to go with that?" 

"That sounds good. I left the teapot in the bag."

"I'll get it."

The morning continued with similarly awkward communication and silent eating. Eventually, they ran out of food to eat and dishes to clean.

It was time to talk.

Rather, it would be time to talk once one of them gathered the courage to ask the first question. Neither could decide whether they wanted to be the first to ask a question or the first to answer a question.

Sasuke assumed Naruto would get impatient with the silence long before her and though she did not really want to be the first interrogated, she could not bring herself to break the silence first.

"Why … did you … freeze?" There. Naruto had asked his question.

That was not the question he was supposed to ask.

Sasuke assumed he would want to know about Kakashi first or his mother or even why she became a fighter. Though she was not quite sure it was a question she even knew how to answer, it was so unexpected she was able to answer it naturally.

"I was just surprised," she said honestly. "Though I have plenty of practice in fighting, I have never been charged with such great killing intent like that."

"Yeah," Naruto said, thoughtfully. "I guess that makes sense. I am just so used to people wanting to kill me it doesn't affect me anymore."

"What?" Sasuke asked, snapping her head up.

"Oh," Naruto groaned, realizing his mistake. "I … well …" Naruto breathed deeply to steady himself and distractedly began picking at his bandaged hand. "It's kind of a long story." Naruto sighed.

"We only have one hundred and forty four hours alone to talk," Sasuke said sarcastically, "give or take a few hours for sleep."

"Yeah," Naruto acknowledged with a chuckle. He settled more firmly in his seat, getting ready for the long time he would be sitting there. "I suppose I was destined to be hated."

Sasuke frowned at that.

"It's true," Naruto said, gaze focused unseeing on the horizon. "One thing you have to understand about me: I am a threat to the country. I have the potential to destroy everything this country values."

"Twisted values," he growled under his breath. "And, I have every intention of doing just that."

"Why?" Sasuke asked with a voice no stronger than a puff of air.

"Because … " he paused to furrow his eyebrows. "Because it is broken and my mother was one of the many people who fell through the cracks. She died when I was seven."

"Your mother," Sasuke repeated, the word bringing back so many of her own memories. They looked at each, connected for a moment by the universal pain of loosing a parent.

"I grew up in a town along the northern border. It was beautiful," he said, smiling brightly. "Was … it really was. But, nobody else cared about it. This country does not value natural beauty anymore. If it does not serve to increase the power and pride of the king, a town is ignored.

"On my seventh birthday, it was attacked by," he frowned in confusion, "by some kind of gigantic demon. My mom and dad had gotten me and a few of our neighbors safely into a cave near our village and had gone back to help more people get to safely. Suddenly, the whole village just seemed to explode into flames.

"I don't know what happened was or why the demon attacked. All I know is that for days afterwards my home burned and crumbled around the few survivors and the king did nothing. He knew, though. He definitely knew. He just chose to ignore the situation. 'Couldn't waste the resources' he said. Eventually, he sent a few soldiers into the town, but their only purpose was to 'salvage' the valuables of the town.

"He is so caught up in his wealth and his power that he can't even see how much the people hate him. But he'll never be challenged because he knows just the right people to bribe and empower. Your family used to be some of those people."

"My family," Sasuke interrupted, bristling, "were good people."

"Maybe they were," he said. "All I know is that your dad was one of the heads of the Royal Soldiers when the demon attacked my home and he did nothing. Nothing!" he shouted. "And you have the same smug look as the soldiers who raided my town!"

"That's why you hate me?" she yelled back. "I would never do something like that!"

He closed his eyes for a moment. "I don't … hate … you," he said slowly with a sigh. "I suppose I hate what you represented. You were a rich girl, who was tying to go around the rules to get what you wanted."

"So?" Sasuke replied, shrugging. "According to you, the rules should be changed. I had to come here."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke breathed deeply. This is the question she had been dreading since she came to the Academy. She knew sometime someone would wonder why a healer of all people would choose to come to the Academy.

"I need to join the Royal Soldiers to find my family's murderer," she said. She frowned at how that had just rolled off her tongue. That was easier than she thought it would be.

Why had she been so hesitant to tell anyone? She supposed it was because, now that she had heard about Naruto's tragic childhood, she felt he could really understand her. Her greatest fear was not that people would know her secret, but that if they knew, they would not understand. It was such an important thing to her and she could not bear the idea of someone misunderstanding her reasons or making little of her pain.

"Your family is dead," Naruto said slowly.

"Yeah," she responded, looking up at him. "They were killed one day when I was at the Institute. I did not live in the dorms at that time, but came home every night. One day I stayed late to work on a spell. By the time I finished, it was after dark. When I got to my family's estates, I noticed that no lights had been turned on even though it had been dark for a few hours.

"I walked down the road and as I turned the corner towards my house, I saw the de …" she choked suddenly on the word. "… I saw the dead bodies of all my family members: aunts, uncles, even my most distant relatives.

"I had been so looking forward to showing them my new spell. It was such a high level one, well beyond my age. I thought that what I wanted most was for them to be proud of me. I believed so much that it would make me happy to have their approval that I forgot how special it was just to have them.

"Classified," she said with an angry snort. "That was all anyone would tell me when I asked what had happened. Classified. Classified. Classified. Over and over they would tell me I could not know what had happened … to my own family.

"I tried to use my connections in the Institute, but they got me nowhere. My only chance is to become a member of the Royal Soldiers and get special permission from the king."

"You really think the King will let you see anything even if he cared enough hear your request," Naruto grumbled, his hatred for the king still fresh in his mind from telling his story.

"It doesn't matter," she said quietly. "I will get that information. I will do whatever I have to do. This is my only chance."

"Well, I am positive this king won't help you," Naruto said, leaning back, "but, once I get rid of him, I'll make sure you find out what you need to know."

"So you want to kill the king?" she asked raising her eyebrows in disbelief.

"No," he huffed. "I just want to take away his throne."

"Naturally," she responded cynically. "How do you propose to do that?"

"Win the Royal Tournament and become king! Believe it!" He jumped up at that and punched a fist into the air; unfortunately, he used his injured hand accidentally. "Ow," he yelped and pulled his hand into his chest.

"Idiot," Sasuke grumbled, though she quickly stood up and ran over to him. "Here," she said softly, motioning to his hand, "let me see it."

She chuckled quietly. "How do you expect to win if you whine over a little cut like this?" she said, with a small smile forming on her face.

"Pretty," Naruto whispered before he could stop himself.

Sasuke blushed brightly.

Naruto blushed brightly.

To hide her embarrassment, she walked over to her bag and took her time grabbing gauze and a rag hoping to hide behind the familiar act of wrapping bandages. Once she had all her supplies, Sasuke was able to take on a more professional mood. With all the ease of a skilled healer, she quickly unwrapped, cleaned, and rewrapped Naruto's hand.

During the whole time she did this, Naruto stood in place fidgeting. He could not get her smile out of his head. Smiling seemed to suit her so well that he wondered how she could go so long without letting it show.

"How does it feel?" Sasuke asked clinically.

"Nice," Naruto said, not exactly talking about his hand. "Thanks."

"So," she exclaimed before anything else uncomfortable could happen. "Wait. Did you say you are going to participate in the Royal Tournament? How can you do that?"

"Oh, Um …" Naruto said nervously, rubbing the back of his head (making sure to use his good hand this time). "Well, my mom was the daughter of the last king, so technically, I am a prince."

"Yeah," Sasuke said sarcastically, "And I'm a man."

"Hey! I'm serious," he said firmly, the look in his eyes leaving no room for any doubt.

"You don't act like one," Sasuke sighed in defeat. The confusion and secrets began to weight heavily on her shoulders, so she sat back down around the now dimly glowing campfire.

Naruto sighed again. They seemed to be sighing a lot during this conversation. Quietly, he walked over and sat down next to Sasuke. It had been a long time since he had told his story to anyone and even then it had been to people who had already known the basics of his past, like the Commander or Iruka.

"My mom was the youngest daughter of the last queen," Naruto explained. "She was so much younger than the rest of the candidates that she never really had a chance at the crown. So, she just moved away to the country after she married my dad and never really raised me like a prince.

"She never hid my heritage from me, but I never really thought too much about it until she died. After seeing the way the King treated my home, I knew I could do a better job and made up my mind to do just that."

"How did you end up here?" Sasuke asked.

"My father was a fighter in the Royal Soldiers. He had served under the Commander. They were really close. When my dad died, the Commander took me in and helped me get into the Academy. He is helping me prepare for the tournament."

"You obviously need a lot of help," Sasuke teased, with a smirk.

"Hey! I am plenty strong," he argued, bumping her shoulder lightly.

"Even if you are strong, you have to be smart too," she countered, bumping his shoulder a little harder.

"I'm smart, too!" Naruto huffed, crossing his arms with a pout.

"Not yet, but I could … help you … if you want," Sasuke said slowly.

Naruto looked at her with wide eyes. That was unexpected. Here he thought they were fighting again, and then she offers to help him.

"Umm…." Naruto muttered stunned. That was stupid. He had to say something. It had obviously been really hard for her to offer to help and he was just sitting there like the idiot she claimed him to be.

"If you don't want …"

"No," Naruto interrupted hastily. "I mean no I do not not want your help … err … I do want you … I mean … You can help … me … if you want …"

Sasuke giggled. Naruto was stunned. He didn't think she was capable of laughing, never mind _giggling._ All he could do was stare at her laughing face. _Pretty_. At least he had just thought that she was pretty this time, instead of saying it out loud again.

After a few moments, Sasuke stopped laughing and noticed Naruto staring at her. She frowned. She was tired of blushing every time he did something like that.

Noticing her frown, Naruto quickly turned away. "Sorry," he mumbled.

'_Finally_,' Sasuke thought smirking because she was not the one caught doing something embarrassing; however, she decided to take pity on Naruto's discomfort. "I am a tough teacher and I won't give you a handicap because you are brain dead," she said to restart the conversation and squash any awkwardness. "You better keep up."

"Believe it!"

At that last declaration from Naruto, they both felt a huge burden leave them. They were no longer enemies. Though they would probably never stop arguing, they could trust each other now.

"What is your favorite food?" Naruto asked randomly.

"What?" Sasuke asked confused, staring wide-eyed at Naruto's serious face.

"It seems weird to know each other's deepest darkest secrets and not know something as simple as that," Naruto explained.

"I suppose that makes sense," Sasuke responded thoughtfully. "Tomatoes."

"How boring," Naruto pouted. "Mine's ramen. It's so cool. And it's got lots of flavors and ingredients. I could eat it every night. I like beef ramen and chicken ramen and …"

"How are you not fat?" Sasuke interrupted, raising her eyebrows.

"Ramen is the best food in the world! It makes you a great person. It would never betray me by making me fat," Naruto said, nodding as if giving wise advice. "Favorite color?"

"Lavender," Sasuke answered, shaking her head at how silly Naruto was acting.

"Really?" he asked surprised. "That seems too girly for you."

"Sorry for being a girl," she snapped.

"That's okay," Naruto said as if forgiving her. "You're still pretty cool. My favorite color is orange."

"And you think lavender is weird," Sasuke mumbled.

For the rest of the day, they passed the time with idle conversations, occasionally snacking or stretching their legs with a walk. It was a great day, though the next morning neither would remember all the little things the talked about.

As the sun began to set around their quiet conversations, they decided it was finally time to pull out their bedding and begin to set them up.

"You can put your bed over here if you want," Naruto said awkwardly, when Sasuke began to roll out her bed on the other side of their campsite.

"That … I would like that," Sasuke said with a smile and then proceeded to gather up her blankets once more. It did not seem so weird this time, nor did it feel like something done solely out of fear of danger. It felt right.

This time, as they lay next to each other, neither had to pretend to be asleep. They turned to face each other and continued talking as if they had done so for years. Sasuke could not remember how long they talked or when she had drifted off to sleep, but she was certain it had been a good evening.

In the morning, when Sasuke opened her eyes, Naruto was still lying next to her. His eyes were open and he was just staring at her. It was a new day and in his eyes, she saw a new look. All the arguments they had had suddenly seemed silly and they wondered why they had even argued in the first place. Things were different between them now. Their hatred had faded gently into the night.

"Good morning," Naruto greeted with a smile.

Black covers even the brightest defeat

It changes the way two people will greet

Allowing old injuries to be healed

Frowns for smiles: all will be revealed.

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	8. Building up to Pain

**Chapter 8: Building up to Pain**

Sorry it has been so long since I updated. School was crazy. I had two really difficult upper division physics classes to try and study for. Even by focusing on it, I still failed both of them …. Anyway, it is summer for me know and I hope to be able to write a lot.

So, most of this chapter us just dialogue and background stuff. I like the nice interaction between them, but the next chapter will definitely have more action.

**~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~**

**W**hite is the color of memories lost

**H**iding all the pain eroding the heart

**I**nvesting in hope no matter the cost

**T**rying to live in the future's new start

**E**njoying the feel of life without frost

As the new day progressed, it seemed as if their hatred was a distant memory lost in the light of their new, though perhaps strange, friendship. The morning was full of good food and pleasant conversation.

"So what should we do now?" Naruto asked, as they cleaned the last of the dishes from breakfast.

Sasuke just glanced up at him with a shrug.

"Well, I guess we are supposed to be learning about each other," Naruto began, talking more to himself than Sasuke, "but, if I have to spend the next week just talking, I will go crazy."

"Then," Sasuke replied rolling her eyes, "maybe you should stop talking. Your voice is enough to make anyone crazy."

"Ha Ha," Naruto snapped back. "I'm serious. What should we do?"

"Train," she replied curtly then walked away into the woods.

"Where are you going?" he yelled, quickly jumping up, throwing the pot in his hand into his pack, and running after her. He ran in the direction where she had disappeared into the trees. After a moment of going through the forest, he entered a clearing where Sasuke was just now pulling up her robes to wrap around her waist.

"What's this?" Naruto asked looking around the rather large flat area surrounded by trees.

"It's the fighting arena for the wilderness training post," Sasuke answered slightly puzzled by Naruto's question. "How do you not know about this place?" 

"How come _**you**_ know about it?" Naruto said, even more confused now.

"It was on the map for the area," she explained. "Haven't you ever been here before?"

"Um … sort of," Naruto started nervously, rubbing the back of his head, as was his habit. "Students come here for survival training, but that is in your first couple years at the academy. I haven't been here in ages. No one really uses it after the first time here because after that, you go outside the Academy to experience different types of terrain."

"Excuses, excuses," Sasuke teased, smirking.

"Whatever," Naruto pouted. "So," he continued, "what should we do?"

"Do?" she asked, raising one eyebrow. "We are in a training arena in a fighting school. Do I need to explain it even more? We … train," she finished talking slowly, as if to a child.

"Not what I meant, jerk," he shot back. "What kind of training should we do? Running. Target Practice. Strength Training. Sparring."

"Why don't you figure it out for yourself? You're supposed to be number one and all that," she taunted.

Naruto huffed and decided he really did not want to talk any more right now, so he settled for the easiest thing he could think of: jogging.

Sasuke watched Naruto with a critical eye as he jogged around the edge of the clearing.

She had not opened to anyone but Kakashi since the death of her family and he had known her and her situation before she had done so. For the last few years, she had distance herself from any connections she had had before that horrible night. Friends were a distraction. Her goal was so impossible that to have any chance of achieving it she had to focus only on it. At least, that is what she told herself.

But Naruto was different.

Over and over, she reasoned that her purpose for getting close to Naruto was only to please the Commander to get a recommendation for the Royal Soldiers, but a small part of her mind whispered that maybe he could mean more than that. The voice was weak enough now to ignore, but she knew, if left alone, that voice would overwhelm her mind.

That thought left her terrified and was the reason she was currently slicing apart the trunk of a tree.

Naruto ran and Sasuke swung her daggar. Neither was really focused on the activity they were doing, but rather on each other. Eventually, both of them were completely worn out: body and mind. Thinking can be more exhausting than the most extreme exercise and they had a lot to think about.

"Should we go train some more?" Naruto asked cautiously after standing around the camp in the awkward silence that followed their meal.

Sasuke contemplated that for a moment, driving Naruto crazy with her silence.

"No," she said finally, making Naruto sigh at the calm tone in her voice, "I brought some books with me that I would like to study."

"Study?" Naruto whined. "Can't we do something else?"

Sasuke chuckled at his attitude. "I did say I would help you get smarter. Though, now I can see that will be a formidable task."

"Hey," he pouted. 

She was just teasing, and he knew that. It was strange how much different an insult could sound between friends. Naruto liked this new dynamic. Though he was glad they were no longer fighting, he had to admit he liked the challenges in their arguments.

"Well," he continued, more determined, "what did you bring?"

"Not much," Sasuke shrugged, reaching into her bag. "I've got a book on basic fighter techniques, which I'm sure won't be of any help to you, and two on class structure of Konoha."

"Boooring. I would rather talk," he said.

"You will never learn anything with that attitude," she countered.

"Not true. I will learn plenty about you … " His voice trailed off at the awkward sentiment.

"And where will that get you," she returned softly.

"Don't know," he proclaimed cheerfully. "But, I want to. As you might have guessed, I'm not a big fan of over-thinking things. I want to know more about you, so I will."

"Why?" she whispered. She would let slide the 'thinking' insult that was rolling around on the tip of her tongue.

"Just do," he answered simply.

"What do you want to know?" she asked skeptically.

"Umm…. Well, what was your family like?"

This was getting uncomfortable. It had been fairly easy to tell Naruto her deepest secret in the heat of the moment, but becoming close to him still scared her. I suppose she thought that telling her secret would be the hardest part of getting to know Naruto, but saying the words was pretty easy. Dealing with the aftermath, that was the hard part. She was not ready.

She was not ready to have a _friend._

The minutes dragged on as she tried to think of whether to try to deter Naruto from wondering about her family or whether she should just tell him and get it over with and if so how she would start and how much would she tell him and … her mind was swirling with uncertainty.

"I mean … well, you don't have to tell me if you don't want," Naruto stated, chuckling awkwardly at the long stretch of silence.

Well, she had a way out, if she wanted. Did she want it? "That's okay," she said, without thinking. _Now what?_ She thought desperately.

"Well, I saw you had a guy in your picture that must be your brother or something, what was he like?" Naruto asked, trying to make her talk.

Sasuke glared. She had almost forgotten that Naruto had destroyed her most precious memory of her family. "Who are you referring to?" she started acidly, making Naruto frown in confusion. "I suppose you could show me, except you destroyed that picture."

_Uh oh. _Naruto thought. He had forgotten about that. "I'm … sorry," he apologized slowly, carefully, sincerely. The way she had acted after he found he ripped her picture had scared him more than anything had since the death of his parents.

Seeing the shine of true regret in his eyes, she decided to let the issue drop. "That was my brother, Itachi," she explained, with a soft smile on her face. "He was seven years older than me, so we never really played together or anything like that. But, he was always nice to me, when we were able to see each other.

"He was a fighter like my dad, whereas I was a healer like my mom. That was always kind of division in our house. My dad was a good enough person, but he always seemed to look down on healers," she paused to give Naruto a playful glare, "a trait many fighters seem to share."

Naruto grinned back at her, happy that they seemed to be back to their bizarre rivalry slash friendship. "Well, yeah, even you jumped ship and came over to our side," he mocked, giving an evil laugh at the end just for the fun of it.

"It was quite a sacrifice to give up a life full of intelligent conversations and sophisticated classes for this," she motioned casually to him, "But, I must endure it."

"I'm so sorry, princess," he said in a mock sophisticated voice. "I know this will be difficult for you, since you have never had to use your muscles much before."

"Yet, even still I was able to beat you," she smirked. No matter how good of an argument he could put up, she always had that little fact to ensure her victory.

"Only once," he yelled, frustrated. "I want a rematch!"

"It's only been about a week since I beat you, so you probably won't be able to beat me. But," she added sharply as he inhaled to shout something. "if you really want a rematch, we can fight again in a month's time. You should try to learn more about how I fight by then."

"Fine," he grumbled.

Sasuke giggled at the childish pout Naruto was giving her and soon enough, Naruto was laughing along with her.

"How did you learn to fight anyway?" Naruto asked after they had laughed themselves out. "Was it that weird Kakashi guy? He seemed to be a fighter and he said something about you being left in his care."

"Yes," she answered simply. "Kakashi is currently my guardian. He had worked as a bodyguard for my mother for many years, so I've known him since I was just a baby."

"Why did your mother need a bodyguard?"

"We were a wealthy and prominent family, basically meaning we had a lot of people who would like nothing better than to see us dead," she grunted at the irony. "I suppose their death made a lot of people happy. Right?"

Naruto was silent for a moment, which made Sasuke even sadder. Did he really believe her family deserved to die? Did she believe her family should die?

"No," Naruto finally said, stopping Sasuke from falling to far into her dark thoughts. "I mean, I suppose some people were happy to see a powerful family like yours die, but I don't think they should be. I think anyone who is happy at the death of another, especially the death of several others, is the real person who deserves to die.

"Argh," he groaned, "Why do we always seem to slip into depressing stuff?"

"I suppose we both have a lot to be depressed about," Sasuke said sarcastically, though with a bit of a smile.

"Well, that's depressing," Naruto said, laughing. "So, back to less gloomy stuff. When did you decide to start training with Kakashi?"

"My mother always thought everyone should know a little self-defense, so I have always been taught to fight. After my family died, I just started training harder and worked out ways to use all my knowledge as a healer in a battle."

"I guess that makes me feel a little better," Naruto said absently.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"It means you did not just suddenly get strong. You had to put in some effort, so that kind of makes me not feel so bad about you beating me because I know I put a lot of effort into my training."

"Hm," Sasuke grunted in understanding.

The conversation trailed off into less serious topics and the rest of the evening progressed peacefully. When it was time to lie down for the night, they both rolled out their beds next to each other without any more awkwardness.

"So," Sasuke whispered as they lied in bed, "all day we talked about my family. What about your family? You said your mom was a princess and your dad was a fighter. Do you have any siblings?"

"No," Naruto answered quietly, turning to stare at the stars. "Mom and dad talked about having another kid sometimes, but I guess they never had the chance.

"Sometimes I wonder," he continued, talking barely above a whisper, "what could have happened if my village had not been attacked that day. Would I have a little brother or a little sister by now? Would I …" he chuckled " …. Would I be married with any kids of my own?"

"I used to think like that a lot," Sasuke added, gently reaching out to hold Naruto's hand, "but, it never really made me feel any better. I suppose when tragedies like that happen all you can do is leave it in your childhood and always keep moving too fast to think about it."

**B**lack is the color of tragedies past

**L**eaving all light in your childhood

**A**sking your love to become your last

**C**laiming that your life is misunderstood

**K**eeping you home always moving too fast

**~*A*N*G*E*L*~**


	9. Ankle Biting Dogs

Here is another chapter. I hope you like it, please tell me if you do. I love feedback: both positive and negative. It helps me know what I am doing right and what I need to do better.

White is loss

Blank

Feelings gloss

"You forgot," the Commander said, in an unreadable voice.

Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other, eyes lingering, trying to glean any information from the other as to how they would get out of trouble. Sasuke raised her eyebrows just a millimeter, her subtle version of a shrug. Naruto, by no means a subtle person, outright shrugged his shoulders.

"We forgot," Naruto confirmed casually.

"How could a person who has been a student at this school for so long forget to right a report for a mission?" the Commander asked. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking, but Naruto thought he might detect a bit of amusement in the Commander's question.

Naruto slipped into his nervous habit of rubbing the back of his head, but as he did, he saw a spark light in Sasuke's eyes. His hand stopped slightly above his head. _What did she just figure out?_

"Sir," she started slowly, "We were distracted wondering about the men who were after Naruto in the woods."

"YEAH!" Naruto shouted, catching on. "Distracted."

The Commander frowned.

"Who were those guys anyway?" Naruto continued, not noticing the frown.

"Well, since you two seem to be getting along, which was the point of this exercise, I suppose I don't need a report," the Commander said with a disinterested voice. "Dismissed."

"But …"

"Dismissed! NOW!"

Naruto stood there gaping at the Commander. It had been a long time since he had yelled at him like that. Sasuke gave the Commander a calculating look before dragging Naruto out of the room.

Sasuke dragged Naruto entirely out of the building and halfway to their classroom before Naruto regained his senses.

"What was all that?" Naruto yelled in frustration and pulled his arm out of Sasuke's grip.

"Naruto," Sasuke sighed his name, knowing that he did not really want an answer.

"He is all mad at us, then lets us off the hook because he doesn't want to talk about the guys who attacked us. He has not yelled at me like that since I was ten and painted over all the portraits in the library."

"You what?" Sasuke groaned. Throughout their week in the woods, Sasuke had been regaled with stories of Naruto's infamous pranks, but this was a new one.

"They were mostly pictures of the King and his advisors," Naruto said dismissively, waving his hand in emphasis. "Who does he think he is to not tell me about the guys trying to KILL ME? It's my life their after …"

"It's classified," Sasuke interrupted, giving him a look that said _welcome to my world._ "Let's just go report in with Iruka. We can talk more about this in private," she suggested, looking around for anyone who might have heard Naruto's shouts. Thankfully, she did not detect anyone.

Naruto continued to grumble unidentifiable sounds, but started walking again. Sasuke sighed once again before following Naruto.

As they approached the classroom, they heard the sound of many muffled voices speaking loudly within the building. They glanced at each other in confusion. Iruka never let the classroom get that loud even when they were sparring.

Hesitantly, they pushed open the doors to the room, causing the sound to explode from inside the room. The noise was so loud that neither could really hear what was being said. The cacophony continued for a few moments before someone realized they were standing there and passed the news along, sending a wave of silence throughout the room as all eyes turned to them.

As the silence dragged on, Sasuke's glare grew as did Naruto's nervous grin.

"You survived the week with the hag," Kiba said, finally, as he walked towards Naruto.

Sasuke glared even harder at Kiba.

"Um … yeah … well … I mean …" Naruto mumbled, glancing back and forth between Kiba and Sasuke, who were glaring at each other, seemingly unaware of his presence. However, both glares turned on him at his words for Kiba was annoyed that Naruto was not agreeing with him and Sasuke was furious that Naruto was not disagreeing with him.

Naruto backed up slowly, holding his hands up in front of himself to keep them away.

"Yeah, Naruto, how did you survive the 'hag'?" Sasuke asked sweetly.

"I … uh …"

"Don't tell me your whipped now?" Kiba growled, shooting another quick glare at Sasuke.

"That's not … um …."

"Oh, yes, Naruto, do tell," Sasuke prodded.

"Sasuke …" Naruto whispered, panicked, as he looked into Sasuke's demanding eyes. "You … I … I just … I … Kiba," he finished, glancing towards Kiba.

"Whose side are you on, Naruto?" Kiba demanded. "This witch, who forced her way into our lives, or me, who you have known since you started this school as a kid."

"Come on, that's not fair," Naruto whined.

"You like her!" Kiba yelled.

"NO!"

"No?" Sasuke parroted Naruto.

"Sas…."

"Forget it," Sasuke interrupted. "Where's Iruka? We have to report in and then you can go off with your friends."

"Sasuke," Naruto whispered again, but she had already walked outside to search for Iruka, because she knew he probably would not be in the classroom or he would have interrupted them already. Naruto stood shocked in the doorway. Should he go with Sasuke or stay and try to talk with Kiba?

Over the week, he really had come to like Sasuke, but in the process, he had forgotten about Kiba and how much he hated Sasuke. How could things become so messed up so quickly? He knew Sasuke had been a bit of a jerk to Kiba, but he admitted now that Kiba certainly did deserve some of it.

Once Sasuke walked out of Naruto's field of vision, he reluctantly turned towards Kiba with a pained expression.

"What?" Kiba argued. "Just because she could not handle the truth, you don't have to feel bad."

"You're being a jerk," Naruto growled, shoving him backwards.

"ME?" Kiba countered, pushing Naruto as hard as he could. "She's the jerk. You know it's true, at least you did before she seduced you into siding with her."

"She did not … seduce me," Naruto said, though Kiba noticed the embarrassed look in his eyes as he stumbled over the word 'seduce.'

"You can't be serious! You really like her! She's the enemy!"

"Enemy?" Naruto whispered dangerously. Kiba cringed. He had struck some kind of nerve in Naruto and knew he was in trouble. "You have no idea what a real enemy is. I have real enemies. People who killed my friends and family. People who want to kill me. People that Sasuke helped protect me from."

During his speech, Naruto had made up his mind to go work things out with Sasuke. Without another look at Kiba, he raced off to find her.

"That was harsh," Kakashi said cheerfully, appearing behind Sasuke as she stormed off to find Iruka.

"Do you know where Iruka is?" she asked, hoping to cut off his teasing.

"Hmm … let me think … yup." Kakashi nodded enthusiastically.

"Great. Where is he?" Sasuke asked, already getting exasperated with him.

"Nope." Kakashi cheered, wagging his finger at her.

"No what?" Sasuke asked rubbing her forehead. She had almost forgot how annoying people were. She found herself quite content alone … and alone with Naruto.

"I am not going to tell you where he is. That would be too easy for you and no fun for me," Kakashi chuckled.

"Then go away," Sasuke retorted annoyed. She was already in a bad mood and did not want to deal with Kakashi's … unique sense of humor.

"Nope," Kakashi grinned.

"What do you want?" Sasuke growled.

"Just wanted to make sure you were okay," Kakashi said, voice slipping to a more sincere tone.

"I'm … fine," Sasuke said, trailing off as she noticed Kakashi's skeptical look. "What? What do you want me to say? Things are what they are. I know better than most that crying does not change anything."

"It changes your heart," Kakashi said seriously. "It also shows your heart to others."

Sasuke just silently glared at him. She certainly did not agree with him, but did not have the energy to fight with Kakashi when he actually acted like the genius he was.

"Iruka is in the infirmary with a twisted ankle," Kakashi consented. "But, Sasuke, being alone is hard." Kakashi walked away, leaving Sasuke to think about his words.

However, Sasuke's mind was already full of so many things to think about that she just shut it down. Report to Iruka. Unpack. Sleep. Any other thoughts would have to wait until tomorrow.

"SASUKE!"

Or not.

"SASUKE!"

She contemplated ignoring Naruto, but he was close and running away was not in her nature. Reluctantly, she turned towards his voice and waited for him to reach her.

"Sasuke," he repeated once he had caught up to her.

"Iruka is in the infirmary," Sasuke said, in an attempt to cut off any other things he may try to say.

"What? Why?" Naruto asked alarmed, sufficiently distracted.

"I heard it from Kakashi. He said it was nothing serious, just a twisted ankle," she responded. "Let's go get this over with."

"Sasuke," he whispered, again. She was getting really tired of hearing her name from him.

"Let's just go. Maybe by the time we are done you will have something else to say."

Naruto started to say something, but Sasuke stopped him with a particularly nasty glare. Not wanting to give Naruto a chance to speak again, Sasuke turned around and walked off, motioning for him to follow.

Reluctantly, Naruto followed her silently. He would have to fix things, but he would have to be smart about it. Sasuke was not a forgiving person nor was she a trusting person. Sasuke had given him her trust and he had destroyed it. He was caught of guard by Kiba. He was angry at the commander. He was distracted by the people trying to kill him. He was … He was an idiot.

Soon enough they had reached the infirmary, where Iruka seemed to be done and was walking towards them on crutches.

"What are you two doing here?" Iruka asked in concern.

"We need to report in with you and heard you were here," Sasuke explained.

"But, you are not hurt at all?" he continued, noting the impatient tone in her voice.

"No, sir," she responded. It was really hard to keep her voice impassive. Unfortunately, she was not entirely able to keep the anger out of her voice, and Iruka seemed to pick up on it.

Naruto did not help the situation by standing there like a scolded puppy glancing up nervously at Sasuke.

"I was not expecting a report the second you got back," he said gently. "Why don't you both go get some rest? Another bed was brought into the cabin for you Naruto."

"Sir, we can give our report," Sasuke continued, determined to get this checked off her list of things to worry about.

"Tomorrow," Iruka said firmly. "A fighter must know when to rest."

"Yes, sir," Naruto answered for them because he knew that tone better than Sasuke. There was no arguing with that tone. He had tried for years.

"Yes, sir," Sasuke mimicked reluctantly.

Iruka nodded and began to hobble away on his crutches towards their classroom. Sasuke focused on Iruka's retreating form to avoid looking at Naruto. Nothing was going well today. Maybe it would be best just to get this day over with. However, she was sure Naruto was going to try to talk to her again. She had to find a way to shut him up at least until she had some time to think about … everything: Naruto, Kiba, Kakashi, the Academy, her life.

"Sasuke," Naruto started hesitantly. "Please let me talk," he said as she once again tried to walk away from him. "I thought about what I am going to say, just like you said. I promise it will be good. Please … please … please … please."

Sasuke just folded her arms and looked at him expectantly.

"Kay, thanks. So," Naruto started nervously. "I swear I did not agree … do not agree with Kiba. You're a cool girl, eerily quiet and sometimes harsh, but not evil. Kiba is loud and annoying and sometimes really stupid … frequently stupid, but he's not a bad guy either.

"I was just caught off guard. You know I am a little slow sometimes. And, you haven't exactly given Kiba any chance to see your nice side. Maybe you could try to be a little nicer to him, since he will be living in our cabin for the rest of our time here. You don't have to like him, but maybe you guys could stop fighting all the time."

Sasuke's features relaxed just a little bit and Naruto smiled at the progress. Bravely, he continued, "I am glad I got to know you last week. I like you … as a friend and all. I think we can become great partners.

"And, I want to help you find your family's killer," he said quietly, checking to make sure no one could hear them. "Please don't be mad at me anymore," he finished giving her a huge, cheesy grin.

"Let's go unpack," she replied simply, though Naruto knew the tone of her voice was back to how it was in the forest before things had gotten so messed up.

With both more relaxed now, they walked peacefully back to their cabin, where, thankfully, Kiba had not yet arrived. They began unpacking their bags in silence, but not uncomfortable silence.

"I'm going to take a shower now," Sasuke said when she was done.

"Yeah, you smell," Naruto teased cautiously not sure if she was ready for banter yet.

"I do not smell. Unlike some people, I don't wait to take a shower until I smell so bad I make people's eyes water like some blond idiot," Sasuke retorted.

Naruto was too happy to be offended, so he just stood there grinning. Sasuke smirked in response, let it slip into a real smile for just a second, and then walked into the bathroom.

After Sasuke disappeared into the bathroom, Naruto continued to unpack. He had more to unpack or so he reasoned because it could not be the fact that he had not organized his pack like Sasuke had suggested.

When Kiba entered the room a few minutes later, he found still unpacking and Sasuke nowhere in site (_thank goodness he thought_). "Hey, Naruto," Kiba said casually. "So, what was all that back there? "

"Don't start, Kiba. Sasuke is just in there," Naruto said, pointing to the bathroom. "She is taking a shower and will be out soon, so just don't start."

"What's going on, man?" Kiba asked annoyed. "Did you guys really get along last week? Before that, you guys were fighting worse than her and me, but now you are yelling at me for picking on her."

"She's not that bad," Naruto argued. "You just need to calm down enough to get to know her."

"Yeah. Right," Kiba mumbled sarcastically.

"Kiba!" Naruto growled. "Just try! Look, we are partners and she shares our cabin. Can't you just try not to argue. Ignore her if you have to. I'm not asking you to be nice to her, but could you at least try not to be mean."

"Whatever," Kiba snapped. To stop the conversation, he went to grab some food. He had just sat down to eat a sandwich when Sasuke walked out of the bathroom, still drying her hair.

When she spotted Kiba, Sasuke paused. Curiously, she looked over at Naruto. Kiba had not jumped to attack her, though he had glanced at her absently. She was not sure if Naruto had convinced him to leave her alone or if Kiba was just waiting for something to set him off.

Naruto nodded slowly at her, then shook his head uncertainly. Even he was not really sure where Kiba stood right now. It was a good sign that he had not started yelling yet. Kiba was not the type of person to wait to express himself. If he was mad, he let you know it, usually as loudly and as obnoxiously as possible.

Suddenly, Kiba stood up, his chair scraping against the floor. He stormed over to the kitchen and began preparing another sandwich, then another, then another. He stacked three plates together and put the sandwiches on top of the stack. With a blank look at Sasuke, he began setting out the three plates on their table.

Once more, Sasuke glanced at Naruto. This seemed like a good thing, but she was always suspicious. Naruto just shrugged and walked over to the table. Sasuke rubbed the towel through her hair one more time, then laid it out gently along the top of the bathroom door before joining Naruto and Kiba at the Table.

"Thank you," Sasuke said quietly.

Kiba just grunted.

They ate quietly. When they finished, Sasuke gathered up their plates and washed them.

"Thank you," Naruto whispered to Kiba once Sasuke was to far away to hear them.

Kiba just glared at him and went in to the bathroom.

"What is he doing?" Sasuke asked, walking back over to Naruto.

"I think he's trying," Naruto said. "So, please be nice to him. You have to try, too, you know."

Before Sasuke could say anything, Kiba walked out of the bathroom and dove into his bed. It was still early, but they all really needed some rest and some time to think.

A few hours later, Kiba's eyes shot open as he heard Sasuke whimpering loudly in pain from her bed. He jumped out of bed, seeing Naruto do the same. As they reached her, they saw her eyes closed, though tears were leaking out of them.

"Sasuke," Naruto whispered shaking her gently. "Hey, wake up."

Her eyes opened for a moment, then closed again. She really hoped that the liquid she felt on her cheeks was sweat, but the stinging in her eyes did not leave her much hope of that. If she was crying, she sincerely hoped that she was still dreaming when she saw Kiba standing over her.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked gently.

She nodded, eyes still closed.

"Dude, you can cry?" Kiba's voice drifted into her ears.

_Perfect. _She had seen Kiba and she really was crying.

"Kiba!" Naruto snapped.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "Are you okay?" he asked, with, to his credit, only a little bit of sarcasm.

"Fine," she said, though her voice wavered.

"What could make the prim and proper little lady cry?" Kiba asked, causing Naruto to smack him in the back of the head.

"The bloody bodies of my parents," Sasuke snapped, too tired to keep her composure.

"Wha … what?" Kiba asked, genuinely sorry now.

"Nothing," Sasuke whispered once she realized what she had said.

"Tell him," Naruto urged. "It could help. He could help. I trusted him with my secret. I'm sure he could keep your secret, too. Maybe it could help you guys get along."

Sasuke told her story. Kiba would ask an occasional question, but otherwise just listened intently. When she finished, Kiba just nodded and went back to bed, but their hatred towards each other was left in the dark of the night.

Black is gain

Saturated

Emotions stain


	10. Jingle Bells and Wedding Bells

Thank you everyone for your reviews. I especially want to say thank you to Elemental Dragon Swordman who has faithfully reviewed at every update; you have been a great motivation for me. I know this idea is a really weird concept, even I think so sometimes, and often I feel like no one likes it. But, those of you who review have given me the courage to keep writing.

Chapter 10: Jingle bells or Wedding bells

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

When white light appears, a new day begins.

Yesterday disappears as today creates

A new history with new memories.

When Naruto, Kiba, and Sasuke showed up for class the next morning, the rest of the students were disappointed in their lack of entertaining fighting. Disappointed at the lack of new things to talk about, the class decided to speculate as to why they were acting so different.

Iruka, of course, was intently lecturing on some subject or another, particularly ineffective as he had to stay sitting behind his desk because of his twisted ankle.

As the class progressed, Sasuke heard everything from 'her and Kiba fell in love' to 'she threatened his man parts.' Kiba was constantly trying to convince everyone that he had just decided to be the bigger person, while Naruto just found the whole thing highly amusing.

"If you are not going to listen to me," Iruka yelled once he finally realized that every single person in the room was ignoring him, "then you can listen to an associate of mine. KAKASHI!"

"My pleasure," Kakashi said, suddenly appearing at the front of the classroom.

All the students began murmuring. _Where did he come from?_ No one had seen him in the room and suddenly he appeared on the opposite side of the room from the door. There were not even any windows nearby.

Then, when their brains began to hurt trying to figure out how this new man had entered the room, the conversation slipped to his mask. Practically every inch of his face was covered, except for a small patch of skin around his left eye. His face was so covered it was hard to keep their attention on it and not the huge mop of … hair-like fibers, which were sticking several inches in all directions around his head.

"My first impression of you guys is," Kakashi drawled after several minutes of basking in the stunned silence of the students, "your boring."

"Who's boring, you old geezer?" Kiba yelled, finally finding an outlet for his frustration.

"Mah, you smell like wet dog," Kakashi commented absently. "So, it looks like I get to play with you brats for today. Everyone outside!"

"Great," Sasuke whispered, as she stood to leave the room.

"What?" Naruto whispered beside her.

"I am too tired to deal with the sadistic scarecrow," Sasuke mumbled in response.

Naruto did not have the time to ask anything further as bustle from the class moving outside made it too difficult to talk, but he gave her a sympathetic look.

"So," Kakashi asked from the middle of the field ('_when did he get there?'_), "why don't we play a little game? Find the shiny bells I hid throughout the camp." He pulled a small silver bell out of his pocket and shook it once to demonstrate its chime. "There are not enough for the entire class. Anyone who does not come back in 2 hours with a bell will spend the next week reorganizing the Academy's libraries on only one meal a day."

"?"

"Mm … go," Kakashi mumbled, pulling a book out of his pocket.

Looking around, Sasuke rolled her eyes at the rest of the class standing around shocked. She grabbed Naruto's hand and dragged him off in a random direction. Though he was just as confused as the rest of the class, Naruto followed absently across the field.

"Wait for me," Kiba said running after them.

"Kiba wait up," another boy from the class said, rushing forward

That finally got the class going and the students scattered in all directions.

Once out of site from the rest of the class, Sasuke ducked behind a group of trees, pulling Naruto with her. However, Kiba and the other boy were close enough to see them and jumped beside them.

"What's going on?" the new boy asked, extremely confused.

Sasuke looked questioningly at the strange person. He looked similar to Kiba with brown hair and eyes, but his skin was a lighter shade and he was certainly shorter. If possible, his hair was even crazier than Kiba's, being contained only by strange green goggles. The two stared at each other.

"This is Konohamaru," Kiba explained as the silence started to irk him. "He is my annoying partner." That earned him an indignant 'hey' from said boy. "He lives in the cabin next to us with Gaara and his older brother Kankuro," Kiba continued, shoving Konohamaru's face away from him.

"Why don't you live in his cabin if you are partners?" Sasuke asked.

"Cabins are assigned as soon as you enter the Academy, but partners are not assigned until a few years later when your teacher learns each student's personality, their strengths and weakness and so on. It is not always true that people who share a cabin will be good partners," Kiba clarified.

"I suppose that makes sense," she said, still annoyed by the extra people. It was just supposed to be her and Naruto … alo …. No. No, that was not what she was thinking. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know," Kiba said shrugging. "You seem to know what is going on with that strange guy, so I figured it would be good to follow you. He was the one who dropped you off here, right?"

"Yeah, he is her guardian," Naruto added, earning a glare from Sasuke. "What? It's Kiba. I thought you two were going to try and get along."

Sasuke grunted.

"Fine, be stubborn," Naruto continued, "but, you could tell us what is going on."

She stared at him for another minute, before sighing. "This is one of Kakashi's favorite training sessions," she mumbled. "He values teamwork above everything and really likes to test it in cruel ways. By not having enough bells for everyone, he observes who is still willing to work together and who will abandon their friends for their own interests."

"So we have to work together to find the hidden bells even if we don't get enough for all of us," Naruto reasoned. "That should not be too hard."

"That is not completely true," she said ominously. "We do have to work together, but there are not bell's' in the Academy. There is probably only one bell: the one he is holding. We will have to fight him for it."

"But, why would he trick us like that?" Konohamaru spoke up for the first time.

"Because he's a sadistic pervert," Sasuke snapped. All three boys shirked back at her harsh tone. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"O…kay," Kiba said slowly. "So, we have to fight him? Then why did you walk off?"

"Because I did not want the rest of the class to figure it out. It would have been too hard to fight him with that many people getting in the way. It would get too complicated."

"But, you said the test was about teamwork," Naruto pointed out.

"Yes, but that was still too many people."

"Does he not want the whole class to work together, just the partners?"

"I don't know. I just need to think about it for a minute."

"But, if we wait too long, we will all fail," Kiba interrupted.

"But, if we go in without understanding the situation, we will fail anyway," Sasuke countered.

"Whatever, I'm telling everybody else," Konohamaru announced. "I am not cleaning the sorting the library, that thing has not been organized in ages, at least not since I have been here and probably long before that." Without waiting for a reply, he walked out of their hiding place.

"Kiba," Naruto said, a warning in his voice.

"It's fine," Sasuke spoke first. "Let him do what he wants. I could be wrong anyway. The test could really be for the whole class to work together to take the bell from him … and you can be sure it would take the whole class … or he really could have hidden bells throughout the grounds … though that is not likely."

"Soooo, what do we do?" he asked thoroughly confused now as was Sasuke.

"I don't know. Why don't we wait to see what happens when the class hears Konohamaru's story?"

"I'll keep an eye on the brat," Kiba said, moving to follow his partner.

When the two boys were out of site, Sasuke sank to the ground with a sigh. Naruto crouched down next to her and placed a hand tentatively on her shoulder. He did not really understand why she was so upset, but he would just have to be careful with his concern so as not to make her angry. He was slowly learning how to act around her.

"We … still have almost the full 2 hours," Naruto said slowly. "We have a little while to figure it out. Let's give Kiba and Konohamaru a while to try things out." He was confused by her silence. Well, really he was confused about his reaction to her silence. He was almost disappointed that she did not snap at him and storm off like she normally would.

She had said she was tired from last night. That nightmare had really seemed to rattle her. It was nice to see her show some emotions, other than anger of course, but it was different and confusing. He was not sure how to react to the more … girly aspects of Sasuke's personality. Before, he had always just treated her practically like a guy, except the few times he flustered him with her lady … stuff.

Despite all his bravado, he had never been particularly good with girls. Besides, most girls at the Academy were more like boys and he had spent most of his life here. He had never really thought about girls … in a girl/boy way before.

"So …." he tried desperately to think of something to say.

"We should go find a place to hide where we can see what happens when the other students confront Kakashi," she proclaimed, ignoring his attempt to talk about something she was sure would be highly embarrassing.

"Yeah, sure," he blurted out.

They both stood and walked in awkward silence back towards Kakashi. Once they had found a suitable observation spot, Naruto tried a different tactic. "Why don't you take a nap for a while and get some rest?"

"I can not sleep during a test like a loser like you," she argued.

"Only an idiot does not rest when she needs to."

"Maybe you're right," she said, with a sly smirk. "You have plenty of experience being an idiot."

"Right. Hey!" he yelled, once his ears caught up with his mouth. "Well, you can watch Kakashi while you are lying down."

Sasuke demonstrated her exhaustion by lying down without another comment.

"Here," Naruto said, patting his leg in an invitation.

For a minute, she stared at him with a raised eyebrow, but consented eventually. _'A few weeks ago I would have cut of his leg just for suggesting this' _she mused.

"Where is everybody?" he asked after several minutes of watching the silver haired man read his stupid book.

"I don't know. You've known Kiba and Konohamaru longer. What do you think they told the rest of the class?" Sasuke asked.

"With them," he said with a snort, "it could have been anything. How long has it been since the test started?" He glanced up at the large clock over the door to the classroom and Sasuke did the same. It had only been about half an hour. "I guess there is still plenty of time for those two to cause some kind of commotion."

"Maybe they got lost," she commented. They both chuckled.

When they had stopped laughing, Naruto asked, "How long do you think we should wait?"

"If nothing has happened in an hour," she said, "we can try to fight him ourselves, though we probably won't beat him."

"Yeah right, I bet we could beat him easy," Naruto said, crossing his arms and nodding his head to accent his confidence tone.

"Not a chance," she cut him off swiftly. "I have fought him many times and I know his strength. We might not be able to beat him even with every student in the class."

"Then there is no point to this exercise."

"The point is to try even when there is no hope. If I did not learn that, I would not even be here. He taught me to fight for the smallest of chances."

Naruto pondered that quietly. He took a deep breath and let his hands fall to his sides. "I guess I understand. I am fighting for a long shot, too. No one really expects me to become king."

"But, that struggle would make you an even better king," Sasuke said softly. She looked up hesitantly from his lap. She really did believe what she said and hoped Naruto could see that. Most of the kings were spoiled brats, who really knew nothing about working hard, but she knew Naruto understood pain, maybe more than she would have liked.

"And, when I am king, I can help you find your family's killer," he assured her firmly.

"I guess when I become a Royal Soldier and you become King, I will be like your babysitter," she said with a smirk.

Naruto choked in surprise. "You … you will be my servant," he said once he had caught his breath.

"Oh, I will be serving you," she said seductively. "Following you everywhere you go." She placed her hand on his thigh. He gasped. "Keeping you safe." She stroked up and down his leg. He groaned. "Catering to your every need." She squeezed. He gulped.

"MmMmMaMamaybe you could do something else," he stuttered. "I … I Mmean I could get you the information Eeven ... even if you weren't in the Royal solders. I could make you … a … an … an advisor or something else. Like, the king tells the queen stuff even though she is not one of his subordinates."

"Oh?" she asked, raising her eyebrow. Slowly, she sat up and turned to face him. From the sly look on her face, Naruto knew he had said something that was going to get him in trouble, but he was not quite sure what yet. "You want to marry me."

_Uh oh. _There was no easy way out of that. If he said no, then she would get mad at him. If he said yes, then she would tease him. So, he just sat there, staring at her like a crazy person.

"Hey, stupid old man, we want your bell," Kiba's voice said from across the field.

"Thank you," Naruto shouted, rushing across the field to join Kiba and Konohamaru.

Well, that was interesting. Sasuke enjoyed tormenting him like that. It was especially fun to see him so relieved as he walked away. Content with her work, she followed after him with a smirk.

"Kiba, what took you so long? Where is everybody else?" Naruto asked when he had reached him.

"Well, no one believed Konohamaru," he said sheepishly, pointing at his partner.

"They didn't believe you either," Konohamaru argued indignantly.

"You both have pulled almost as many pranks as me, so I guess it makes sense that they would not believe you," Naruto chuckled.

"But, we even had a perfectly logical explanation," Konohamaru whined.

"An explanation I gave you," Sasuke said. "You must really have a bad reputation if they would not even believe my logic."

"Hey," Konohamaru protested new to Sasuke's taunting. "Maybe it was you logic that was bad."

"You believed me," she said with a shrug. "If it was not good logic, then you must be pretty stupid to believe it."

"I'm not stupid!"

"Come on, not another one," Naruto sighed referring to Sasuke teasing another one of their classmates. He glanced over at the clock. "We have less than an hour to get that bell from him. Let's focus on that."

Before they could talk anymore, Kakashi interrupted them with his annoyingly happy voice, "You really think you have this figured out Sasuke?"

He had not even peeked up from his book, which infuriated her even more. The book was his way of ignoring people and it meant he was not worried about them at all. Now she wanted to fight him for the bell just to get him to drop the book.

Without another word, she charged him, mind scrambling for any attack that could possibly do any damage. _Sweep the legs? He'd just jump away. Right hook? He will block that easily. Round house kick to the head? Maybe, but I would have to get the height just right or it's an easy dodge. _

Well, it was her best shot, so she jumped and aimed a kick to his head. Unfortunately, she was a little high and he just bent backwards to dodge it, still reading his book. When she landed, she checked for any openings, though not really expecting to find any. However, she did spot a slight opening on his left side where his left arm was raised to high to hold his book to his face.

In the heat of the moment, she did not consider the possibility that the opening was a trap and carelessly aimed a punch to his left side. In an instant, Kakashi had changed position, twirling around so instead the fist was aimed to the right of his back. The punch flew past his right side and he used his free right hand to grab her arm. As if Sasuke weighed nothing, he twirled her around and threw her across the field.

The whole exchange took less than 30 seconds and left the three boys observing the fight completely confused. All they had really seen was Sasuke running forward, some blurry movements, and then Sasuke flying through the air.

Konohamaru, not having seen Sasuke's entrance fight, just thought Sasuke was too weak and decided that he definitely would not be defeated. As he raced by, Naruto tried to stop him, but was too late.

After throwing Sasuke, Kakashi's back was turned away from the other boys and presumably could not see the approaching boy. Thus, Konohamaru was surprised when the man simply sidestepped his punch. With a grunt, Konohamaru quickly threw his other fist forward, though it was also dodged easily. The stubborn boy could not understand that he was being toyed with and continued to attack with futile move after futile move.

Kakashi read his book.

Several minutes passed by before Kiba and Naruto finally decided to help their flailing classmate. They both rushed into the fight, hoping to outmaneuver Kakashi with their numbers.

They failed and Kakashi read his book.

Eventually Sasuke rejoined the fight, and all four of them fought him. Time passed quickly as they mindlessly attacked the frustrating man and soon their hour was over.

Kakashi closed his book. "Time's up," he said to the four figures panting on the ground. "You'll have to wait for the rest of the brats to arrive before you hear your punishment."

And, two by two, the rest of the class returned to the field all looking completely despondent.

When all the students had appeared, Kakashi began speaking, "Well, not one bell I see. I guess you all fail. Hmmm…. But it would probably be too much hassle to have all of you working in the library at once. I'll tell you what. How about just one person from each cabin takes the punishment for the whole cabin?"

The exhausted students looked blankly around to their companions. This whole day had been unusual: Kiba and Sasuke getting along, Iruka giving up his class to a strange man, said man giving them a bizarre task, and now talk of an even more bizarre punishment. What was going on?

"So," Kakashi said cheerfully, "Who is it going to be? Who do I punish? Come on. Choose."

Murmurs began running through the field. _Who should go? _They quickly got louder as they tried to get their fellow roommates to take the punishment. Shouts filled the field: 'you're oldest,' 'you're younger,' 'I'm smarter,' 'I need more time for my studies,' etc. Excuses of all kinds rang throughout the class until the students were ready to physically fight each other for their freedom.

"Well, this is taking too long," Kakashi droned. "If someone from your cabin does not step up, the whole cabin will get a formal reprimand."

Now, to a normal fighter just hoping for a job in law enforcement or the army, a reprimand was just a slap on the wrist, but for anyone hoping to join the Royal Soldiers, it was practically a rejection letter. Unfortunately, just about every student in Iruka's class was striving for just that.

The shouting increased and now several students were throwing punches and kicks at their closest friends. The fighting spread rapidly throughout the class and Kakashi watched the whole thing with a bored look.

"I WILL GO!" Sasuke shouted, causing the whole class to stop talking. She looked around slowly. "I like books more than my roommates and I am smaller, so I need less food."

"No, I can do it," Naruto said. "Sasuke and Kiba are my friends and if I can make their lives easier, I will do it. It does not matter if I have to be stuck in the library for week. What is the point of being assigned partners if we do not look out for each other. As a fighter it will be my responsibility to take care of others, how can I do that if I sacrifice my own roommates for my comfort?"

Naruto's speech seemed to both shame and inspire the class. Within seconds, every student was volunteering for the punishment like it was a great honor. However, Kakashi did not look happy at the turn of events. In fact, he appeared furious, glaring at the class.

The class froze.

"Well, then," he started slowly in a deep, scary voice. "You all pass," he finished cheerfully.

_Huh?_

Kakashi walked away from the open mouths and wide eyes of the confused students.

"Class dismissed," Iruka shouted from the doorway of the classroom, where he was hobbling out on a crutch and holding a stack of papers.

That night, everyone went to sleep hoping this day would just be another bad memory and never be repeated again.

When the black of night reigns,

Another day ends as today fades

Forming memories from realities.

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


End file.
